Open letter to Chief Femi Fani-Kayode: My Reflection

SWEDEN – I rejoice with you for strength and life, especially at this season when ‘stay safe’ is a global greeting. Many are gone! I also thank God for your genealogy. You did not choose to be born into your lineage; it was predestined for a purpose which I believe you are on your way to achieving if you do not let distractions override.

At the end of this letter, I leave you with a word from the good Book which I believe the LORD gave me on the eve of the date that inspired this letter.

Thoughts of the incidence from your Calabar interview repeatedly flashed my mind while I pursued my daily labour. The previous night, I read a headline saying you are to sue the journalist’s employer for some huge sum of money, but just before I slept, I was moved to read from Prophet Isaiah.
One of your previous publications where you described yourself as a Christian ‘evangelical’ convinced me that supporting your vision for the nation, Nigeria would not be a bad way to go.

I have been further convinced after I learnt of your struggle, I share your vision, your pain and advocacy. I still believe you! If being born into a family was a thing to choose, many compatriots will choose to be born in your lineage, to escape the entrapment and entrenchment that has caused many to sell off their only inheritance and flee to the West where many become neo-plantation workers. But you are still in the home front, alive, though persecuted, yet challenging the adversaries, still blessed and on your way to your destiny.

Perhaps, one person I qualify to advice is Zhanna, my 8-year old daughter. This letter is not to advice you; it is my reflection on the fall out and aftermath of the Calabar interview. Your personality is significant therefore you would expect even ordinary individuals to have opinion, some may malign your cause, defame your character or whisper against you. I am usually incensed whenever I read malicious comments on social media from people who ordinarily would not stand before you and speak to you in disdain.

In my view point, I find no wrong in the question you were asked by the Journalist in Calabar. You know the new generation peers have become fearless and perhaps reckless when they have a platform. That ‘little mind’ may have succeeded in manipulating your reaction. I sense your outrage may have been motivated by flashes of thought about which foe the journalist represents. You were a public servant and aware of the intricacies of a press conference.

The silence in that press room as you responded to the journalist, appeared to be a catalyst that quickened you to talk in a manner that may have not best represented good institutional behaviour; I am certain that on an international scene, you would show up at the press room in the persona of a diplomatic orator, like an enigma with an impregnable clout. I am dissatisfied that you did not show same in Calabar, as a consequence, my team ‘Chief’ looked less a champion and less a fighter for ‘freedom of expression’ and Democracy.

Please watch How Nelson Mandela punched Ken Adelman

On June 21 1990 in New York, Ken Adelman of Institute of Contemporary Studies expressed disappointment on the role models of Human right that Nelson Mandela supported at the time, he asked if Mandela would like to have any of those he supported: Fidel Castro, Moammar Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat become future leader of South Africa. The great Mandela ‘destroyed’ the Journalist with a consummate response that ushered in unprecedented applause which breaks off the draught (please see video here: How Nelson Mandela punched Ken Adelman ). You will never be ‘persecuted’ as much as Mandela, therefore our team expects much more than you have given!

Your expression of regret over the ‘verbal attack’ may be more effective if you directed it to the victim -Eyo Charles- (NOT DAILY TRUST) whom you have now made more famous. Your apology may also be seen as a smokescreen by many spectators, not only because you did not address the victim by name.

To reduce the risk of losing more points, I think it may be unnecessary to play the victim and institute a legal action against Media Trust Limited unless you promise to win the lawsuit and use the money to establish African Board of Intelligence and Response Department (BIRD) where we will practice forensic science.

You may allow haters to whisper, conspire, tell lies and put your character and integrity in question, but see that you do not compromise or misuse your strength, for greater in He that is in you than he that is in any political party.

Never allow the evil deeds of your haters bring you down as I take you to the Book of Isaiah 2: 12, 17 which I believe the LORD revealed to me a night before this letter was inspired, it reads. “For the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up…the loftiness of man shall be bowed low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day”.

Remember these words “HINC LUCEM ET POCULA SACRA” Latin for “FROM HERE, LIGHT AND SACRED DRAUGHTS” is what the team expects from our ‘Chief’!

May the LORD remain with you! See you on the winning side!

Byke Freeborn (@bykefreeborn)
Student of Development Studies,
Lund University, Sweden.