Same-faith Ticket: Apologise To Nigerians, Group Tells Fani-Kayode

A group of legal practitioners under the auspices of the ‘Progressive Lawyers for Osinbajo’, has called on the Director of New Media of Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, to apologise to Nigerians for recanting on his advocacy against a Muslim-Muslim ticket because he was named a Director of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign.

The call was contained in a statement issued by the group’s publicity secretary, Barr. Tom Adoji, in Abuja on Monday.

The group referenced a recent newspaper article titled, “Yemi Osinbajo, Bola Tinubu and Queen Elizabeth’s Funeral”, when Fani-Kayode attempted to promote the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket, and curiously calling on the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to support the ticket.

In the statement, the group expressed disappointment that those who believed in Fani-Kayode’s strident crusade against Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2015 are now wondering what explains the change of belief.

“Fani-Kayode is now talking about Absalom, but what about him completely denying and betraying his own faith. Is that not a worse story of Judas?,” it said.

The group recalled the former Minister of Aviation’s conduct and utterances, noting that having opposed the same idea through several written and video messages in the past, Fani-Kayode’s latest admiration for the same faith ticket was questionable and ridiculous.

The lawyers wondered why the former Minister who had openly criticized the same-faith ticket in the past, was now soliciting Prof. Osinbajo’s support for same.

The satement also described as misleading, attempts by Fani-Kayode to credit VP Osinbajo’s political successes to presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, noting that “as against the uninformed thought of FFK, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo came for an enviable pedigree, his life records are opened to the public; they are not questionable, including having served as Special Adviser to the Attorney-General of the Federation in 1988.”

The group, according to the statement, condemned Fani-Kayode’s comments and asked him to retract his words and apologise to Nigerians.

“We don’t now know which version of FFK to believe or which is the real or fake. This is what social duplicity means and the unstable public commentator called Fani-Kayode is the best expression of a political chameleon. We demand he apologises to Nigerians for his crooked manifestation of tomfoolery,” the statement noted.

In the recent article Fani-Kayode likened contestations for the APC presidential ticket at the primary election to the story of Absalom, who “wished death, destruction, shame and disgrace to his father (King David), and entered into an open rebellion with him and attempted to steal his crown.”

The group noted that Fani-Kayode has exposed his lack of integrity, betrayal of faith in his recent actions.

The statement said Fani-Kayode has clearly eaten his words, having pointed out the disadvantages of same faith ticket, in many articles, a typical example being an Op-Ed published in the Premium Times in 2014 and titled, ‘APC and the strange dream of Muslim/Muslim Ticket’.