Ffk’s Disobidiently Obidient Submission By Austin Isikhuemen

Janus. The god of new beginnings in Roman mythology. A two-faced god with one facing the old and the other facing the new year. January is named after this god.  Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, commonly called FFK, is not a Greek neither do I have evidence of any ties between him and Greece. But he is a Nigerian in all respects yet, he reminded me of Janus after I read through his well-researched and elegantly written article titled ‘Who Are These Obidients?’.

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In his inimitable delivery and flowery writing style, this history graduate and political combatant of many duels delivered an Obidient Manifesto that not even the Obidients could have embellished further. Those who haven’t read it should rush to do so. But I will warn that it is long and detailed and should be read with either kolanut or a chilled bottle of beverage nearby.

FFK was a PDP maverick spokesman during Jonathan’s attempt at securing a second term.  He was a thorn in the opposition APC’s neck and a match for Lai Mohamed in the battle of wits and mudslinging.

Then he was seen see-sawing with the EFCC. Then he ported to APC and it has been a bit quiet since on that front.  Then his bombshell of an exposé on the upwelling Obiedient phenomenon.

A couple of months ago one would have thought FFK was eyeing the Spokesman position in APC for which he is eminently qualified. But that didn’t happen. On the Presidential Council too, Dino has out-staged him.

Have those anything to do with his current application of sorts to the Obidient movement? Is he telling the groundswell revolution “here I am send me” with his unsolicited manifesto and broadcast on the national political space?

Hear him.

“They may not have structures or elected representatives in the legislative and executive arms of government but they have ideas and vision coupled with a clear ideological and philosophical bent which can and will endure for far longer than mere political platforms and structures.

Unknown to them as well as virtually everyone else therein lies their power. As they say, an idea whose time has come cannot be stopped. Long after we are all gone they will still be here because structures and political alliances rarely endure but ideas and vision last forever.”

FFK goes on to argue correctly as follows:

“They also represent a generational and paradigm shift which is increasingly attractive to many and they are bound tightly together by a common purpose, common cause and common objective: namely to rid Nigeria of the old order and usher in the new. That is really what they want to do and that is the primary and strongest source of their inspiration and motivation.”

What is disheartening, and difficult to reconcile, is how a man can make such a brilliant case for a worthy cause as he has done, then turn around to argue for a clique to which he belongs to do everything to stop this match.

The only explanation is that the self-same man belongs to the group of oppressors whose interests are being threatened by this resurgence of the youth whose tomorrow is not assured by a continuation of the status quo. This is not entirely my conclusion.  We even can glean it from FFK’s own submission.

Here it is:

“If they ever get power many heads will roll and many of today’s and yesterday’s leaders will run into exile or go into hiding. This is especially so for those who have something to hide or who have skeletons in their cupboards.

That is what makes them so threatening and I repeat, those of us that are in the larger political parties or that are members of the existing and ancient ruling class underestimate them, ignore them and display disdain for their firm resolve and rising anger at our own peril.”

Using fear to make a case for relevance to the powers that be and simultaneously appealing to the Obidients that he understands and agrees with their case.   Janus!  The two-faced god.  Wanting the oppressed and the oppressor to love and gratify him.

‘I am one of you’ he seems to say. ‘I like the old and extant order with obscene benefits derived therefrom which I want to keep enjoying peaceably’.  But he must show the revolutionaries that he loves and understands them too, and even made a case for them, so that when the time of reckoning comes, he would be considered a comrade!  Haba, FFK!

One other confounding submission is that FFK argues that the Obidients can never win but goes on to say at the same time that they can only be ignored to the regret of the group he belongs.

And he puts the ruling class in both APC and PDP in the same basket forgetting that he had told the nation that PDP is bad and APC is good. Does this not strengthen the argument of the Obidients that the current ruling elite, including FFK, belongs in the same oppressive, clueless, unimaginative, inertia-inducing class that needs to give way for any progress to be made? And that ‘Obidience’ is the only option if real change is to come?

Yes, FFK probably set out to do a brilliant analysis of the emergent phenomenon that has surprised even Obi and Datti themselves but ended up making himself an individual that neither APC, PDP nor Labour Party can take into confidence! Can someone remind me of what the Japanese mean by hara kiri?

These are going to be interesting times indeed. Times in which folks would set out to market their principles but end up making a case for the opposition.  Because there is no reason in God’s earth for any man in this country today to make the case for a continuation of the status quo.

A case to maintain the current insecurity quagmire, the intolerable economic situation, of routine power grid collapse, unbridled corruption, 50% un/under employment, education sector shutdown, aviation section crisis, massive oil theft, and debt suffocation?

No Sir! Oga FFK, you cannot continue to keep Nigerians marking time because you want to retain those undue privileges that your class has enjoyed at their expense.

Another mistake FFK made is that he also takes Obidients to be youths alone.  A big fallacy indeed.  Do your research without blinkers and you would find different answers and reach a contrary conclusion.  There are people in the movement beyond those you read on social media. And some are in their eighties.  What the FFK!

Lagos. 23rd August 2022 – Austin Isikhuemen 

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