In a bid to rubbish former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, spokesman for the Asiwaju/Shettima APC Presidential Campaign Council, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Sunday put in a good word for Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, saying he is far better than the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Atiku.
“Even Peter Obi has far more to offer than him.”
Fani-Kayode also gave credibility to past speculations on the how the former number was frustrated from attending cabinet meeting during the period of his frosty relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo more than a decade and half ago. He disclosed details of how a clique of ministers took on Atiku.
Fani-Kayode was reacting to comments credited to spokesman of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye, who spoke on the alleged frail health of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In addition to suggesting a drugs test by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Melaye added, “Tinubu is not fit. I challenge him to a medical examination and Atiku will do same. We want to see if Tinubu’s pronouncement of agbado, cassava and 50 million youths to be employed in the army and people tweeting on WhatsApp are mere statements or they were made out of mental imbalance.”
Below is a full text of Fani-Kayode statement on Sunday:
“Compared to Atiku Abubakar, the Jagaban is as fit as a fiddle.
“And unlike the former Vice President he has nothing to hide, he has no skeletons in his cupboard, he does not visit the dark places and he is pure in body, spirit and soul.
“Atiku cannot come anywhere near Asiwaju in terms of his mental or physical virility or acumen.
“Whether mentally, physically or spiritually Atiku is very far behind.
“Worse of all he lacks intellectual substance.
“All you need to do is speak to him for ten minutes to know that his head is totally empty and that there is nothing between his ears.
“The man knows nothing. He is dangerously shallow.
“Other than flying all over the world with his men friends and living like an Arab Sheik whist surrounded by slaves when he is in his native Dubai the man is as hollow and dull as a barrel.
“In the days of President Obasanjo those of us that were in that Government knew him as the pretender, the usurper and the kingslayer.
“We called him those names because he tried his best to usurp the powers of the then President and he sought every opportunity to undermine, insult, discredit, humiliate and dishonor him.
“We thank God that each time he did so he failed.
“He tried his best to slay Obasanjo politically but God was with the President and he delivered him from his evil hand.
“It was so bad that on two separate occasions I was constrained to attempt to walk him out of cabinet meetings and I told him off in front of the entire cabinet and President but each time Obasanjo saved him.
“Had it not been for OBJ’s kindness, merciful nature and intervention the entire cabinet was ready to take my lead and walk out on him for his treachery.
“We just couldn’t bear it anymore.
“After I did it the second time he never came back to any cabinet meeting again.
“We were pleased with that.
“It’s the best thing he could have done.
“This is the same man that is now calling OBJ a statesman and is saying he deserves a Nobel Prize and that his face should be on the naira.
“Atiku is lying. He does not mean a word of it. He is offering a Greek gift. He is playing politics.
“Deep down he hates OBJ with a passion and he has always done because the President outfoxed and outpunched him at every turn when he attempted his treacherous move to usurp him and take his place as President.
“Some of us shall never forget that. A man brought you from nowhere and made you his Vice President and you tried to knife him in the back and take his position.
“You tried to disgrace and humiliate him and you coveted his seat. That sounds like Lucifer when he was in heaven to me.
“No matter what you say about Asiwaju Tinubu he has never betrayed those that helped him to power.
“He is loyal to his own to a fault whilst Atiku does not know the meaning of the word.
“When he and his men friends attempt to mock the Jagaban on issues of health I laugh and shake my head with pity for them.
“The truth is that Asiwaju is so far ahead of Atiku in this and every other respect and they know it.
“As each day passes their collective ignorance, pettiness, idiocy and weaknesses are becoming more and more manifest.
“A man that cannot hold his own party together wants to be President.
“A man that cannot empathise with the suffering of the people and that gloats when people are suffering and when there is turmoil in the land cannot be trusted with power.
“A man that is trying to give the impression that he was part and parcel of Obasanjo’s success as President when in actual fact he was trying to frustrate that Government’s efforts to improve the lives of our people is nothing less than treacherous and deceitful and he cannot be trusted with power.
“May God deliver our nation from the clutches of such a creature.
“Even Peter Obi has far more to offer than him.
“Atiku and his camp know that Jagaban will win this election hands down and as each day passes it is getting clearer.
“That is why they are so jittery.
“That is why they resort to nothing but falsehood, insults and abuse.
“That is why the only thing they talk about is Jagaban’s health and age.
“We want a campaign that centres on issues but Atiku and his men friends do not even know the meaning of the word.
“His team are ignorant, uncouth, disrespectful and utterly primitive and nothing reflects or manifests that more than the vituperations and asinine contributions of his garrolous, thuggish and indisciplined spokesmen.
“He and Dino Melaye fit each other.
“They are like husband and wife.
“Yet they are not the issue and neither do we in the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Council care about what they say or do.
“For us the issue is our beloved country Nigeria and the only person in the race that we can trust with the destiny of 200 million Nigerians is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We must never make the mistake of putting our nation in the hands of a power-obssesed, overambitious, subversive and dangerous megalomaniac like Atiku who knows nothing about the modern age, who behaves like a feudal lord and who has been trying to be President for the last 30 years.
“The Nigerian people deserve far better than that”.
Recall that a spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye, called on the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to subject the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu, to narcotic test.
According to him, such a test would assist in knowing their fitness for the highest elective office in the country.
His words in an interview with journalists on Saturday: “I call on the leading presidential candidates to submit themselves to medical fitness examination, including narcotics examination. I call on the NDLEA Chairman, Buba Marwa, to take Atiku and Tinubu for drug tests because anyone who will be our president must be free of drugs. This is important as our country is battling the scourge of drug abuse.
“Tinubu is not fit. I challenge him to a medical examination and Atiku will do same. We want to see if Tinubu’s pronouncement of agbado, cassava and 50 million youths to be employed in the army and people tweeting on WhatsApp are mere statements or they were made out of mental imbalance.
“Aso Rock is looking for a healer, not a patient. Nigerians don’t want another president that will be visiting London every week and cause us economic and social distractions.”
On the Labour Party’s candidate, Melaye said, “Peter Obi has no capacity to unite this country. You don’t give a carpentry job to a tailor. Nigerians must know that any vote for Peter Obi is a vote for the APC because Obi cannot make it. Anybody campaigning for Obi is actually working for Tinubu to become the President.”
In a statement, he had words for Fani-Kayode. Titled, ‘Femi Fani-Kayode: the puerile defender of the ungodly’, he said the former minister should have embraced the teachings of Proverbs 17 vs 28, saying his description of Shettima was ironic.
He added, “What sardonic humour to award Shettima the undeserved award of a helper of Nigeria? Where is the record of that service? Where was Shettima when the Chibok girls were hauled into Sambisa Forest (in 2014)?
“My brotherly counsel for Femi Fani-Kayode is to always be in a good frame of mind, which could offer him the alertness to know what to say, when to say it and to whom to say it. It’s another bad outing for an unguarded parrot.”
