Femi Fani-Kayode
Encyclopedia
David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode is a Nigerian
politician
, essayist, poet
and lawyer
. He is a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP). He was born in Lagos
, Nigeria
, on 16 October 1960 to Chief Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode
and to Chief (Mrs) Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode. He is an Ile-Ife chieftain of Yoruba
descent.
Fani-Kayode was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006. He was appointed the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 22 June to 7 November 2006 and as the Minister of Aviation from 7 November 2006 to 29 May 2007.By Emmanuel Ajibulu ,"Chief Remi Fani-Kayode: The Facts and Not the Fiction",'ModernGhaha.com, November 2009
and a judge
. His father Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode
, who was also at Cambridge was a prominent lawyer and political figure in Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s: he was Leader of the NCNC
Opposition in the Western House of Assembly from 1960 to 1963, the Hon. Minister of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Deputy Premier of the Western Region
of Nigeria from 1963 until 1966 and he successfully moved the motion for Nigeria's independence in 1958 in the Nigerian Parliament.
Femi Fani-Kayode started his primary school education at the age of 8 at Brighton College
, Brighton
in the U.K. after which he went to Holmewood House School
in Tunbridge Wells, Kent
, South-East England. After prep school he gained entry into Harrow School
in Harrow on the Hill, United Kingdom and later on into Kelly College
in Tavistock, U.K., where he completed the rest of his public school education. In 1980 Femi Fani-Kayode proceeded to the University of London
, School of Oriental and African Studies
where he graduated with an LL.B law degree in 1983. He gained entry into Cambridge University (Pembroke College
) where his grandfather (Selwyn College
), his father (Downing College) and his older brother, Akinola (Downing College) had all previously read law. Victor Adedapo Kayode, Femi's grandfather, was called to the British bar (Middle Temple
) in 1922 and his father, Remi Fani-Kayode
, was called to the British bar (Middle Temple
) in 1945. After finishing from Cambridge Femi Fani-Kayode went to the Nigerian Law School
and in 1985 was called to the Nigerian Bar. In 1993, under the tutelage of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams of Ghana, Femi Fani-Kayode became a Pentecostal Christian. He decided to go back to school to study theology at the Christian Action Faith Bible Seminary in Accra
, Ghana
, gaining a diploma in theology in 1995.
Femi Fani-Kayode was a member of the Nigerian National Congress (N. N. C) in 1989. He was elected the national youth leader of N. N. C that same year. In 1990, he was appointed as Chief Press Secretary to Chief Tom Ikimi
, the first national chairman of the National Republican Convention
(N. R. C) and in 1991 as Special Assistant to Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, former head of the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO). In 1996, disturbed by the actions of Gen. Sani Abacha’s military junta, Femi Fani-Kayode left Nigeria and joined the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) abroad where, together with the likes of the Oxford University-trained lawyer Chief Tunde Edu and others, he played a very active role in the fight against Abacha. He came back to Nigeria in 2001 and met President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the beginning of 2003, Femi Fani-Kayode was appointed by the President as a member of his presidential campaign team for the 2003 presidential election. After President Obasanjo won that election Femi Fani-Kayode was appointed as the first ever Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In 2006 he was appointed as the Honourable Minister of Culture and Tourism. That same year, after a minor cabinet reshuffle, he was redeployed to the Aviation Ministry
as the Honourable Minister of Aviation. Since the end of the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration on 29 May 2007, Femi Fani-Kayode has gone back to the private sector and to his legal practice.
(EFCC) in July 2008 in connection with the alleged misappropriation of a 19.5 billion naira (approx.US$300,000,000) "Aviation Intervention Fund" but the investigation was eventually closed and the charges were later dropped for lack of evidence of any wrongdoing on his part. Again the Senate Committee on Aviation in early 2008, investigating the allegations of misappropiation of the same Aviation Intervention Fund initially recommended that Fani-Kayode be banned from holding public office for five years but subsequently withdrew that recommendation when it became clear that he was not amongst those that misappropriated any public funds. In June 2007 he was reported to have had an affair with one of his former aides, Miss Chioma Anasoh who was arrested by Nigerian customs agents on suspicion of attempting to illegally export US$240,000 via Abuja airport. Fani-Kayode allegedly arrived at the scene and facilitated her release. Anasoh later denied that her arrest had ever taken place, and also sued the newspaper that alleged that she did so for libel at the Lagos High Court. Fani-Kayode also denied the claim that he went to the airport to facilitate the release of Chioma Anasoh and he also said that she was never caught or arrested at the airport with US$240,000 or any other amount.
Fani-Kayode was again arrested on December 2008 by the EFCC and was charged with 47 counts of money laundering. These charges had nothing to do with the Aviation Intervention Fund but rather with some lodgements in his private bank account. Fani-Kayode stated that he was innocent and that the lodgements were funds that accrued from his own private businesses and legitimate sources and had nothing to do with government funds. He alleged that the investigations of the Yar'Adua government and the EFCC were politically motivated, and that he was being persecuted in the same way as other colleagues from the Obasanjo government, such as Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai
and Nuhu Ribadu
, for their ties to President Obasanjo.
At the beginning of 2010 due to President Yar'Adua's chronic ill health coupled with his prolonged absence from Nigeria without anyone hearing a word from him or knowing what was really wrong with him, there were speculations that a power struggle had begun in Nigeria with President Obasanjo and his loyalists pushing for Yar'Adua to step down and hand over power to his Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
. Yar'Adua's loyalists resisted this suggestion vehemently and it was reported that part of their response to that challenge was to implement yet another strategy to try to silence and intimidate President Obasanjo and his key loyalists like El-Rufai, Fani-Kayode, Ribadu, Lawal Batagarawa, Nnenadi Usman
and Andy Uba by roping them into a phantom coup plot with a view to eventually charging them and trying them for treason and encouraging military insurrection. This was the same method that was adopted by General Sani Abacha
who had jailed Obasanjo on similar trumped up charges when he was in power. General Obasanjo was released and pardoned a number of years later after Abacha died and after General Abdulsalami Abubakar
took power.
In November 2010, Fani-Kayode alleged that Yar'Adua's intention before he died was to jail and destroy the legacy of his predecessor in office and the man that single-handedly brought him to power, President Olusegun Obasanjo, together with those that were perceived as being his loyalists, including El-Rufai, Ribadu, and Fani-Kayode himself. He also alleged that Baba Gana Kingibe
, the Secretary to the Federal Government during the Yar'Adua administration, was the principal enforcer of that plan and that Yar'Adua administration officials James Ibori
, Tanimu Yakubu, Abba Ruma
and Michael Aondoakaa
were also involved.
In January 2010 and approximately two months after Yar'Adua left Nigeria and was flown to Saudi Arabia
on medical grounds (during which time no Nigerian other than his wife and his chief security officer saw him or saw any pictures of him), there were strong speculations in the country that the president was dead, was in a deep coma or was simply so sick that he could not even speak or get up from his sick bed in his Saudi Arabian hospital. This resulted in a power vacuum in Nigeria as a consequence of which a constitutional crisis began to unfold. The President's supporters and cabinet ministers, led by his wife Turai Yar'Adua
, resisted the suggestion that the Vice President should take over power whilst the President was incapacitated even though this was what the Nigerian constitution prescribed, Fani-Kayode added his voice to that of President Obasanjo, President Shehu Shagari
, General Yakubu Gowon
, Ernest Shonekan
and other former heads of government, former cabinet ministers, former legislators, leading opposition figures and leading members of the ruling PDP party by publicly calling for the resignation of President Yaradua and for the transference of power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan at that critical time. In order to convey his view Fani-Kayode wrote a satire in Next Newspaper and titled it "Corpsology: Umaru's Gift To The Modern World". In the article Fani-Kayode suggested that by insisting on ruling Nigeria from his sick bed in Saudi Arabia and through his acolytes and wife, the President and his supporters were not just breaching the Nigerian constitution but that they were also surreptitiously introducing an entirely new and alien system of government into Nigeria, destroying democracy and attempting to perpetuate themselves in power through that new system indefinitely. He argued that this was being done by the authorities even where it was clear that the President was already "half dead". Fani-Kayode defined his concept of corpsology (or "corpsocracy" as he sometimes calls it) as "the rulership of the living by the dead" and the thrust and intent of his satire was to clearly convey the message that the attempt to introduce this hitherto unknown system of government into Nigeria by Yaradua, his wife and his kitchen cabinet was unacceptable and must not be allowed to stand.
On August 7, 2010 Fani-Kayode wrote another article titled "Charles Taylor: A Man Betrayed" in which he described the events and circumstances leading up to the extradition of the infamous former President of Liberia
Charles Taylor from Nigeria, where he had been given refuge and asylum after a bitter war and crisis in his nation Liberia. Fani-Kayode explained how Taylor ended up being handed back to Liberia and how he was then sent to the International Criminal Court
at the Hague in the Netherlands
to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Fani-Kayode had been the spokesman of President Obasanjo at that time, and in his essay he gave an account of how Taylor was betrayed by a number of parties and nations and detailed what he described as the "treacherous and ignoble" roles that US President George W. Bush
and President Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia played in the saga. He accused both America and Liberia of reneging on their word and on an earlier agreement on the Taylor issue and he alleged that they "betrayed the confidence" that the African Union
, the ECOWAS Heads of Government, Nigeria and President Obasanjo had placed in them. Finally he called for the trial of former President George W. Bush and Britain
's former Prime Minister Tony Blair
at the same International Criminal Court
at the Hague for what he described as "similar crimes against humanity" as the ones that Taylor was being accused of. He alleged that they had committed these crimes during the illegal invasion of Iraq
and the bombing of Baghdad
in which he claimed that "hundreds of thousands of defenceless and innocent Iraqi women and children" were killed. The article was published the day after the sensational appearance of super-model Naomi Campbell
at the famous "blood diamonds" trial of Charles Taylor at the Hague.
Fani-Kayode was also involved in a debate about the mysterious circumstances under which Nigeria's first Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, lost his life. In two essays titled "Femi Fani-Kayode: Who Killed Sir Tafawa Balewa?" and "The Death of Tafawa Balewa: the Segun Osoba angle", he opposed the view that Balewa had died of natural causes which had been suggested by Chief M.T. Mbu
, Nigeria's former Foreign Minister and Chief Segun Osoba, a former state governor, and he proffered the view that the Prime Minister had actually been murdered. Fani-Kayode wrote other essays over the years. In 2011 he called for the "crushing" of the islamic fundamentalist sect called Boko Haram which claimed responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of Nigerians in a campaign of terror and bombing in their quest to ban western education and set up an islamic fundamentalist caliphate in the whole of northern Nigeria".
, was a renowned and influential artist and photographer who founded of the Association of Black Photographers
(AUTOGRAPH) and who passed on in 1989.
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, essayist, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. He is a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
People's Democratic Party (Nigeria)
The People's Democratic Party is a political party in Nigeria. Its policies generally lie towards the right wing of the political spectrum. It has won every single Presidential elections since 1999, namely: 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011, and is the dominant party in the Fourth Republic.-History:In...
(PDP). He was born in Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, on 16 October 1960 to Chief Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode
Remi Fani-Kayode
Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode , Q.C., S.A.N, C.O.N was a leading Nigerian politician, aristocrat, nationalist, statesman and lawyer. He was elected Deputy Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria in 1963 and he played a major role in Nigeria's legal history and politics from the...
and to Chief (Mrs) Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode. He is an Ile-Ife chieftain of Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
descent.
Fani-Kayode was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006. He was appointed the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 22 June to 7 November 2006 and as the Minister of Aviation from 7 November 2006 to 29 May 2007.By Emmanuel Ajibulu ,"Chief Remi Fani-Kayode: The Facts and Not the Fiction",'ModernGhaha.com, November 2009
Background and education
Femi Fani-Kayode comes from a prominent political and legal family in Nigeria. His great grandfather, the Rev. Emmanuel Adedapo Kayode, was one of the earliest Nigerians to be educated having obtained an MA from the University of Durham, after which he became an Anglican priest. His grandfather, Victor Adedapo Kayode, studied law at Cambridge University and later became a lawyerLawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and a judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
. His father Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode
Remi Fani-Kayode
Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode , Q.C., S.A.N, C.O.N was a leading Nigerian politician, aristocrat, nationalist, statesman and lawyer. He was elected Deputy Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria in 1963 and he played a major role in Nigeria's legal history and politics from the...
, who was also at Cambridge was a prominent lawyer and political figure in Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s: he was Leader of the NCNC
National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons
National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons , was a Nigerian political party from 1944 to 1966. The name included 'Cameroons' because Cameroon had become an administrative part of Nigeria in 1945. Cameroon had been a colonial territory of Germany...
Opposition in the Western House of Assembly from 1960 to 1963, the Hon. Minister of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Deputy Premier of the Western Region
Western Region, Nigeria
The Western Region was a subdivision of the federation of Nigeria until 1967. Its capital was at Ibadan.It was established in the 1930s under British rule as a subdivision of the Southern Nigeria colony...
of Nigeria from 1963 until 1966 and he successfully moved the motion for Nigeria's independence in 1958 in the Nigerian Parliament.
Femi Fani-Kayode started his primary school education at the age of 8 at Brighton College
Brighton College
Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for...
, Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
in the U.K. after which he went to Holmewood House School
Holmewood House School
Holmewood House School is an IAPS independent, co-educational Preparatory School for boys and girls aged 3 - 13, located in Langton Green, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent.-History:...
in Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, South-East England. After prep school he gained entry into Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
in Harrow on the Hill, United Kingdom and later on into Kelly College
Kelly College
Kelly College is a coeducational independent school situated in the outskirts of Tavistock, Devon, with around 350 students ranging from ages 11 to 18; there is an associated preparatory school for primary school children, Kelly College Preparatory School, nearby.The college has eight hectares of...
in Tavistock, U.K., where he completed the rest of his public school education. In 1980 Femi Fani-Kayode proceeded to the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
where he graduated with an LL.B law degree in 1983. He gained entry into Cambridge University (Pembroke College
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
) where his grandfather (Selwyn College
Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College is a constituent college in the University of Cambridge in England, United Kingdom.The college was founded by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of the Rt Reverend George Selwyn , who rowed on the Cambridge crew in the first Varsity Boat Race in 1829, and went on to become the...
), his father (Downing College) and his older brother, Akinola (Downing College) had all previously read law. Victor Adedapo Kayode, Femi's grandfather, was called to the British bar (Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
) in 1922 and his father, Remi Fani-Kayode
Remi Fani-Kayode
Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode , Q.C., S.A.N, C.O.N was a leading Nigerian politician, aristocrat, nationalist, statesman and lawyer. He was elected Deputy Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria in 1963 and he played a major role in Nigeria's legal history and politics from the...
, was called to the British bar (Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
) in 1945. After finishing from Cambridge Femi Fani-Kayode went to the Nigerian Law School
Nigerian Law School
The Nigerian Law School was set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1962 to provide a Nigerian legal education to foreign-trained lawyers, and to provide practical training for aspiring Legal Practitioners in Nigeria....
and in 1985 was called to the Nigerian Bar. In 1993, under the tutelage of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams of Ghana, Femi Fani-Kayode became a Pentecostal Christian. He decided to go back to school to study theology at the Christian Action Faith Bible Seminary in Accra
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, gaining a diploma in theology in 1995.
Political career
Tom Ikimi
Tom Omoghegbe Ikimi is a Nigerian diplomat. He served as Foreign Minister from 1995 to 1998 in the military government of Sani Abacha. He was replaced soon after Abacha's death.-External links:*...
, the first national chairman of the National Republican Convention
National Republican Convention
The National Republican Convention was a Nigerian political party established by the government of General Ibrahim Babangida and ultimately disbanded by the incoming military regime of General Sani Abacha in 1993.-Alignment:...
(N. R. C) and in 1991 as Special Assistant to Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, former head of the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO). In 1996, disturbed by the actions of Gen. Sani Abacha’s military junta, Femi Fani-Kayode left Nigeria and joined the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) abroad where, together with the likes of the Oxford University-trained lawyer Chief Tunde Edu and others, he played a very active role in the fight against Abacha. He came back to Nigeria in 2001 and met President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the beginning of 2003, Femi Fani-Kayode was appointed by the President as a member of his presidential campaign team for the 2003 presidential election. After President Obasanjo won that election Femi Fani-Kayode was appointed as the first ever Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In 2006 he was appointed as the Honourable Minister of Culture and Tourism. That same year, after a minor cabinet reshuffle, he was redeployed to the Aviation Ministry
Nigerian Federal Ministry of Aviation
The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Aviation is a ministry of the Nigerian government that regulates air travel and aviation services in Nigeria.The ministry is responsible for formulation and management of the government's aviation policies in Nigeria....
as the Honourable Minister of Aviation. Since the end of the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration on 29 May 2007, Femi Fani-Kayode has gone back to the private sector and to his legal practice.
Challenges and Allegations
Femi Fani-Kayode was investigated and arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes CommissionEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud and money laundering...
(EFCC) in July 2008 in connection with the alleged misappropriation of a 19.5 billion naira (approx.US$300,000,000) "Aviation Intervention Fund" but the investigation was eventually closed and the charges were later dropped for lack of evidence of any wrongdoing on his part. Again the Senate Committee on Aviation in early 2008, investigating the allegations of misappropiation of the same Aviation Intervention Fund initially recommended that Fani-Kayode be banned from holding public office for five years but subsequently withdrew that recommendation when it became clear that he was not amongst those that misappropriated any public funds. In June 2007 he was reported to have had an affair with one of his former aides, Miss Chioma Anasoh who was arrested by Nigerian customs agents on suspicion of attempting to illegally export US$240,000 via Abuja airport. Fani-Kayode allegedly arrived at the scene and facilitated her release. Anasoh later denied that her arrest had ever taken place, and also sued the newspaper that alleged that she did so for libel at the Lagos High Court. Fani-Kayode also denied the claim that he went to the airport to facilitate the release of Chioma Anasoh and he also said that she was never caught or arrested at the airport with US$240,000 or any other amount.
Fani-Kayode was again arrested on December 2008 by the EFCC and was charged with 47 counts of money laundering. These charges had nothing to do with the Aviation Intervention Fund but rather with some lodgements in his private bank account. Fani-Kayode stated that he was innocent and that the lodgements were funds that accrued from his own private businesses and legitimate sources and had nothing to do with government funds. He alleged that the investigations of the Yar'Adua government and the EFCC were politically motivated, and that he was being persecuted in the same way as other colleagues from the Obasanjo government, such as Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai
Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai
Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai was a former Director General of The Bureau of Public Enterprises, the head privatisation agency in Nigeria and also the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja from 16 July 2003 to 29 May 2007...
and Nuhu Ribadu
Nuhu Ribadu
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu is a former Nigerian government anti-corruption official. He was the pioneer Executive Chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission , the government commission tasked with countering corruption and fraud...
, for their ties to President Obasanjo.
At the beginning of 2010 due to President Yar'Adua's chronic ill health coupled with his prolonged absence from Nigeria without anyone hearing a word from him or knowing what was really wrong with him, there were speculations that a power struggle had begun in Nigeria with President Obasanjo and his loyalists pushing for Yar'Adua to step down and hand over power to his Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
Goodluck Jonathan
Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR, BNER, GCON is the 14th Head of State and current President of Nigeria.He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the...
. Yar'Adua's loyalists resisted this suggestion vehemently and it was reported that part of their response to that challenge was to implement yet another strategy to try to silence and intimidate President Obasanjo and his key loyalists like El-Rufai, Fani-Kayode, Ribadu, Lawal Batagarawa, Nnenadi Usman
Nnenadi Usman
Mrs. Nenadi Esther Usman is a Nigerian politician from Jere in Kaduna State, Nigeria. She was elected Senator for Kaduna South in the April 2011 elections, running on the People's Democratic Party platform.-Early career:...
and Andy Uba by roping them into a phantom coup plot with a view to eventually charging them and trying them for treason and encouraging military insurrection. This was the same method that was adopted by General Sani Abacha
Sani Abacha
General Sani Abacha was a Nigerian military leader and politician. A Kanuri from Borno by tribe, he was born and brought up in Kano, Nigeria. He was the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998....
who had jailed Obasanjo on similar trumped up charges when he was in power. General Obasanjo was released and pardoned a number of years later after Abacha died and after General Abdulsalami Abubakar
Abdulsalami Abubakar
General Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar is a Nigerian general who was President of Nigeria from June 9, 1998 until May 29, 1999. He succeeded Sani Abacha upon Abacha's death. It was during Abubakar's leadership that Nigeria adopted its new constitution on May 5, 1999, which provided for multiparty...
took power.
In November 2010, Fani-Kayode alleged that Yar'Adua's intention before he died was to jail and destroy the legacy of his predecessor in office and the man that single-handedly brought him to power, President Olusegun Obasanjo, together with those that were perceived as being his loyalists, including El-Rufai, Ribadu, and Fani-Kayode himself. He also alleged that Baba Gana Kingibe
Baba Gana Kingibe
Baba Gana Kingibe is a Nigerian politician and political appointee havening held many high-level Nigerian governmental posts. He hails from Borno State in the northeastern part of Nigeria, and is of Kanuri extraction.Amb...
, the Secretary to the Federal Government during the Yar'Adua administration, was the principal enforcer of that plan and that Yar'Adua administration officials James Ibori
James Ibori
James Onanefe Ibori was the Governor of Delta State in Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. He is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party . He was arguably the most vocal advocate for resource nationalism in Nigeria....
, Tanimu Yakubu, Abba Ruma
Abba Sayyadi Ruma
Abba Sayyadi Ruma was appointed Federal Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources in Nigeria by President Umaru Yar'Adua on 26 July 2007.He left office in March 2010 when Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved his cabinet....
and Michael Aondoakaa
Michael Aondoakaa
Michael Kaase Aondoakaa was Nigeria's justice minister from July 2007 to 10 February 2010.-Background:Michael Kaase Aondoakaa was born in Benue on 12 June 1962. He attended the University of Maiduguri, where he studied law...
were also involved.
Poems and essays
In November 2009, before Yar'Adua fell ill, Fani-Kayode wrote a poem titled "I Stand and I Fight". In this poem, he described Yar'Adua as a "sickly tyrant with an amalekite foundation" and he predicted that "his end would soon come". Fani-Kayode wrote other poems over the last few years.In January 2010 and approximately two months after Yar'Adua left Nigeria and was flown to Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
on medical grounds (during which time no Nigerian other than his wife and his chief security officer saw him or saw any pictures of him), there were strong speculations in the country that the president was dead, was in a deep coma or was simply so sick that he could not even speak or get up from his sick bed in his Saudi Arabian hospital. This resulted in a power vacuum in Nigeria as a consequence of which a constitutional crisis began to unfold. The President's supporters and cabinet ministers, led by his wife Turai Yar'Adua
Turai Yar'Adua
Hajiya Turai Umar Musa iar'Adua is the widow of former Nigerian President and former Katsina State Governor Umaru Yar'Adua. She served as the First Lady of Nigeria from 2007 until the death of her husband, President Yar'Adua, on May 5, 2010....
, resisted the suggestion that the Vice President should take over power whilst the President was incapacitated even though this was what the Nigerian constitution prescribed, Fani-Kayode added his voice to that of President Obasanjo, President Shehu Shagari
Shehu Shagari
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, Turakin Sakkwato served as the President of Nigeria's Second Republic , after the handover of power by General Olusegun Obasanjo's military government....
, General Yakubu Gowon
Yakubu Gowon
General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowon was the head of state of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975. He took power after one military coup d'etat and was overthrown in another...
, Ernest Shonekan
Ernest Shonekan
Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan is a British trained Nigerian lawyer, industrialist, politician and traditional chieftain. He was appointed as interim president of Nigeria by General Ibrahim Babangida on 26 August 1993. Babangida resigned under pressure to cede control to a democratic government...
and other former heads of government, former cabinet ministers, former legislators, leading opposition figures and leading members of the ruling PDP party by publicly calling for the resignation of President Yaradua and for the transference of power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan at that critical time. In order to convey his view Fani-Kayode wrote a satire in Next Newspaper and titled it "Corpsology: Umaru's Gift To The Modern World". In the article Fani-Kayode suggested that by insisting on ruling Nigeria from his sick bed in Saudi Arabia and through his acolytes and wife, the President and his supporters were not just breaching the Nigerian constitution but that they were also surreptitiously introducing an entirely new and alien system of government into Nigeria, destroying democracy and attempting to perpetuate themselves in power through that new system indefinitely. He argued that this was being done by the authorities even where it was clear that the President was already "half dead". Fani-Kayode defined his concept of corpsology (or "corpsocracy" as he sometimes calls it) as "the rulership of the living by the dead" and the thrust and intent of his satire was to clearly convey the message that the attempt to introduce this hitherto unknown system of government into Nigeria by Yaradua, his wife and his kitchen cabinet was unacceptable and must not be allowed to stand.
On August 7, 2010 Fani-Kayode wrote another article titled "Charles Taylor: A Man Betrayed" in which he described the events and circumstances leading up to the extradition of the infamous former President of Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
Charles Taylor from Nigeria, where he had been given refuge and asylum after a bitter war and crisis in his nation Liberia. Fani-Kayode explained how Taylor ended up being handed back to Liberia and how he was then sent to the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
at the Hague in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Fani-Kayode had been the spokesman of President Obasanjo at that time, and in his essay he gave an account of how Taylor was betrayed by a number of parties and nations and detailed what he described as the "treacherous and ignoble" roles that US President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and President Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia played in the saga. He accused both America and Liberia of reneging on their word and on an earlier agreement on the Taylor issue and he alleged that they "betrayed the confidence" that the African Union
African Union
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...
, the ECOWAS Heads of Government, Nigeria and President Obasanjo had placed in them. Finally he called for the trial of former President George W. Bush and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's former Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
at the same International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
at the Hague for what he described as "similar crimes against humanity" as the ones that Taylor was being accused of. He alleged that they had committed these crimes during the illegal invasion of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and the bombing of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
in which he claimed that "hundreds of thousands of defenceless and innocent Iraqi women and children" were killed. The article was published the day after the sensational appearance of super-model Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world...
at the famous "blood diamonds" trial of Charles Taylor at the Hague.
Fani-Kayode was also involved in a debate about the mysterious circumstances under which Nigeria's first Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, lost his life. In two essays titled "Femi Fani-Kayode: Who Killed Sir Tafawa Balewa?" and "The Death of Tafawa Balewa: the Segun Osoba angle", he opposed the view that Balewa had died of natural causes which had been suggested by Chief M.T. Mbu
Matthew Mbu
Matthew Tawo Mbu is a Nigerian lawyer, politician, diplomat, and a permanent fixture in Nigerian political affairs for more than fifty years...
, Nigeria's former Foreign Minister and Chief Segun Osoba, a former state governor, and he proffered the view that the Prime Minister had actually been murdered. Fani-Kayode wrote other essays over the years. In 2011 he called for the "crushing" of the islamic fundamentalist sect called Boko Haram which claimed responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of Nigerians in a campaign of terror and bombing in their quest to ban western education and set up an islamic fundamentalist caliphate in the whole of northern Nigeria".
Family
Femi Fani-Kayode has been married three times. His first marriage was to Saratu "Baby" Atta in 1987 but they were divorced by 1990. They have one daughter whose name is Oluwafolake. The second marriage was to Yemisi Olasunbo Adeniji in 1991 but they were divorced by 1995. They have three daughters whose names are Oluwatemitope, Oluwatobiloba and Oluwatuminu. The third marriage was to Regina Patience Amonoo. They were married in 1997 and are still married till today. They have one daughter whose name is Oluwaremilekun. His brother, Rotimi Fani-KayodeRotimi Fani-Kayode
Oluwarotimi Adebiyi Wahab Fani-Kayode was a Nigerian photographer working principally in Britain. He explored the tensions created by sexuality, race and culture through stylised portraits and compositions...
, was a renowned and influential artist and photographer who founded of the Association of Black Photographers
Association of Black Photographers
The Association of Black Photographers is a British based, international, non-profit-making, photographic arts agency...
(AUTOGRAPH) and who passed on in 1989.