The former Minister of Aviation and former spokesman of the Goodluck Jonathan’s Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has expressed worry that Nigerian politicians who ignore the Obidient Movement do so at their own peril.
In an article he penned with the title “Who Are These Obidents?”, the vocal politician, who is seen as a rabble-rouser most times, and equally known for speaking frankly on issues, said his position does not mean he is Obident, as he would not support Peter Obi, but Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu.
He however said: “Those of us in the larger political parties like the ruling APC and the opposition PDP, treat them with contempt and ignore them at our own peril.
“The truth is that they are far more dangerous to our collective cause as a ruling class than many of us can possibly conceive or appreciate. Only the discerning can appreciate this and know precisely where this whole thing may be heading.
“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.
“Again they will outlive and outlast us all because they are not a political party in the true sense of the word but rather a growing national movement which scales and spreads across ethnic, religious, political and regional lines and traditional boundaries.
“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.
“In the main they are an innovatively aggressive and frightful array and association of angry and determined young men and women who clearly have the courage of their convictions coupled with the audacity, fury, daring, rage and firm resolve of those that were involved in the Endsars protesters and the fiery footsoldiers that effected the 1917 Russian Bolshevik revolution led by Vladimir Iliyich Lenin.”
Fani-Kayode classified the Obidient Movement as “a revolution that defies ethnic boundaries, religious leaning and scorns shallow political ideology powered mainly by a resentful crop of young Nigerians”.
He also likened them “to the Jerry Rawlings revolution in Ghana that turned things around I the political leadership of Ghana.
“That is to say they are like the late, great and mighty son of Africa and leader of Ghana, President Jerry Rawlings, who also led a successful revolution in his country in 1979 and who, on his second coming in 1981 when he toppled yet another Government said, “if there is no justice there can be no peace. That is the spirit that is in the Obidients and that is what moves them.”
Fani-Kayode further contended that: “they are determined to fight to the end, hope for the best, work hard and give it their best shot and, of course, therein lies their victory.
“In this game courage is the key. As they say, ‘he who dares wins’. Again as they say, ‘fortune favours the bold’ and these young people are both daring and bold.
“That they can challenge the status quo and vie for the sacred and awesome power that has been shared by the two major political parties or their ancestral variants over the last 62 years is commendable in itself. I am not part of them but I certainly commend and applaud their efforts.
“They too have a right to fight for their rights and future and to be heard. They too have a dream and a story to tell and we must never begrudge them that.
“Yet if the truth be told they are not only interested in winning an election but, perhaps even more importantly, they are interested in making a profound and defiant statement, registering their protest against the status qou and the powers that be and triggering and engendering a full scale, comprehensive and all-embracing social, cultural and political revolution.”
