In my last Saturday Breakfast, I served a piece, "Once upon a Festus Keyamo". I was travelling and cooking the piece at the same time and could not garnish it properly. I apologize.
I had written last week that I used to be a great admirer of the young lawyer, Festus Egwarewa Keyamo. I like bold and courageous people. I am certain that no great nation in human history has been built by cowards. Nigeria will not be the exception. Apart from the natural good looks of Keyamo, he used to appear to me as a young man of serious conviction who stood firmly for truth, justice and fairness and was prepared to pay whatever price necessary for the progress of the Nigerian people.
When I saw people like Festus Keyamo, I was assured that no matter how fierce the locusts and vampires may be, there are people who will stoutly defend Nigeria and Nigerians and our nation will survive and grow from strength to strength. I was sure that Festus Keyamo would continue with the important job the great Gani Fawehinmi did for our nation for which he will be admired forever.
Yes, I have hosted the "who-is-who" of Nigeria in the different events I have organized: Gani Fawehinmi, M.K.O. Abiola, Ezigbo Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, Sani Abacha, Ibrahim Babangida, etc., etc. I wrote last week that a few years ago, Festus Keyamo honoured me with his presence at one of my events at Eko Hotel, Lagos. I was so excited by his presence. That is how much I have admired the young man and how much I saw him as a future Nigerian leader.
You must understand how I felt the day I first saw Festus Keyamo on television, frontally defending the unmitigated disaster that is the Buhari administration. I was revolted. I honestly did not know whether to vomit or to cry. Oh! I asked myself: Is this the same Festus Keyamo? Have they cloned him? What could they have offered or promised him to agree to deploy himself to tear down with his own hands the brand that he laboriously built?
I was always sure that Festus Keyamo is intelligent. At a rather young age, he became a successful solicitor and advocate and even a senior advocate, but he makes a big mistake in thinking that the problems of Nigeria can be solved by mere combative words and smooth talk, and that he is the best man to deliver the words and smooth talk. As intelligent as he may be, I am not sure Keyamo quite understands that our nation is going through a particularly dangerous period in history and that our young people can see what is going on and are appalled by it.
I am amazed that Festus appears to believe that the problem with the Buhari government is poor advocacy and propaganda. In other words, the anguish and horror the Nigerian people are going through are make-belief. To him, it must be that Lai Mohammed, Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu and the rest have done a very bad job of selling the government. Ask him about the successes of the government and he will real out the roads, bridges and railway lines the Chinese have built in Nigeria at a cost no one is quite sure of. One of the railway lines is of course the one from Abuja to Kaduna that has since been abandoned to bandits.
For some reason, Keyamo, a relatively young man, cannot see or feel the dangerous direction that the Nigerian nation has been headed in recent times and the hopelessness that seems to engulf the citizens. He also cannot see the humongous corruption that is making our nation unable to pay its bills, the nose-dive of the Naira, the brazen and open stealing of our crude oil, the tribal and religious divisions, kidnappings, senseless killings, abductions, banditry, galloping inflation, joblessness and the political and judicial rascality that have sapped the hope and faith of our young people. No amount of advocacy or propaganda by Festus or anyone else can change the fact that the Buhari government is an established calamity. I watch Festus on TV and he talks like it is business as usual. Is it possible that he does not know that the falcon can no longer hear the falconer?
When Keyamo was named a minister, quite a few people thought that he would be designated Attorney–General & Minister of Justice and given the job of ensuring that the rule of law is sacrosanct in our country. For where? The people who believe that they own the country thought it was too dangerous to give such an assignment to someone who comes from where Keyamo comes. The job was given to Buhari's son-in-law and Festus was made a junior minister!
Festus Keyamo is excited that he has been appointed the spokesman of the APC Campaign Council. Wow! Keyamo, the chief salesman of Nigeria's totally corrupt bullion van democracy? What am I talking about? If they had not schemed Adams Oshiomhole out of the APC Chairmanship after he got Buhari to power again, our once respected NLC President may today be shouting at ASUU like Education Minister Adamu Adamu who as a journalist, was once a key ASUU supporter.
I have watched Keyamo defend the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket. He is sure that Nigeria will never become an Islamic State because of Sections 10 and 9 of the constitution. Ha-ha-ha-ha! He should know that you don't need a constitutional amendment if the people in power are determined to do everything an Islamic state does. He thinks that the Vice President has no real power. He says that his being No 2 man is just for protocol and order of precedence in public! Pray, who becomes President if the President is incapacitated or dies in office?
Festus Keyamo has said repeatedly that outside the South-East, Peter Obi is a carpetbagger and may in fact be a trojan horse for Atiku Abubakar. He believes that the purported massive support that Peter Obi enjoys is a joke concocted by putting 20 people in one room who use avatars to appear to be many and to abuse everybody. Is the guy serious?
Who is this guy on TV that looks like Festus Keyamo? Does he know that there is a tomorrow? What did they promise him?
See you next week.
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