One cannot overemphasize the importance of quality reporting when conveying facts and opinions in order to ensure accurate information dissemination. Before going further, it is important to appreciate some professionals who have excelled in this regard and who have added value to the practice of journalism in our nation.
Some of the names that come up in this respect are Olusegun Osoba, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, John Momoh, Sam Amuka Pemu, Babatunde Jose, Gbolagbo Ogunsanwo, Adebayo Williams, Akin Osuntokun, Nduka Obaigbena, Gbenga Adefaye, Dele Momodu, Mike Awoyinfa, Debo Adeshina, Yussuf Olaniyonu, Simon Kolawale, Sam Nda-Isaiah, Yemi Adebowale, Debo Abdulahi, Steve Ayorinde, Sufuyan Ojeifo, Eniola Bello, Reuben Abati, Mideno Bayagbon, Eze Anaba, Bayo Onanuga, Dare Babarinsa, Jide Ajani, Ben Bruce, and Sola Omole to mention a few.
These mentioned veterans both in the print and broadcast media have afforded the fourth estate of the realm the opportunity to take its place of pride in the scheme of things. Be that as it may, for a tiny minority that has compromised the ethics of the profession, the media is sometimes used as a tool for leverage, character assassination, revisionism and societal control. But, thankfully, many media practitioners in Nigeria still see the media as the voice of conscience where facts are sacred and opinion is cheap.
However, to the renegade tiny minority, the media symbolizes nothing but a commercial enterprise where falsehood, distortion and deceit are deployed for propaganda and tilted news — all for a price. We must therefore celebrate and encourage the former and larger group while discouraging and exposing the excesses of the latter and smaller group.
It is for this reason that I have decided to write about the emerging leaders of Nigeria and those that are likely to play significant roles in the future of our nation. We must at least attempt to separate the chaff from the wheat.
For the establishment of the much sought after new Nigeria, we need to raise a new generation of leaders possessing certain manifest capabilities to drive the process of paradigm shift in our country. Such emerging leaders include the likes of Usman Bugaje, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, Chief Akin Oshuntokun, Governor Ayodele Fayose, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, Governor Seriake Dickson, Governor Godwill Akpabio, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Abubakar Umar, Olisa Agbakoba, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and a few others.
With well-exposed and well-educated men and women like this in the power equation and in the quest for a new Nigeria, I am convinced that there is a future for our country. Today I will focus on one of these emerging leaders and that person is David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Fani-Kayode, son of the late Deputy Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria, Chief Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode, Q.C, S.A.N, C.O.N.
Femi Fani-Kayode started his primary school education at the age of 8 at Brighton College, Brighton in the United Kingdom. Thereafter, he went to a prestigious boarding school called Holmewood House Preparatory School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, South-East England. After distinguishing himself in the prep school, he gained entry into Harrow School in Harrow on The Hill, United Kingdom. He later attended Kelly College in Tavistock, also in the United Kingdom, where he completed his public school education.
In 1980, Fani-Kayode proceeded to the School of Oriental and African Studies, where he graduated with an LL.B law degree in 1983. He gained entry into Cambridge University where his grandfather, his father and his older brother, Akinola had all previously studied law. At Cambridge, Fani-Kayode matched his father’s score in his final exams by also getting a high upper second in his post graduate LL.M degree in 1984. After finishing from Cambridge he attended the Nigerian law school and in 1985 was called to the Nigerian Bar.
In 1993, Fani-Kayode returned to school to study theology at the Action Faith Bible Seminary in Accra, Ghana. In 1995, he obtained a degree in theology from that institution.
Fani-Kayode showed early traits of leadership in 1987 when he set up a group called the “September Club”. The group was made up of many bright new breed politicians and young professionals in Nigeria at that time. In 1988, he was elected leader of the September Club. In 1989, he became the National Youth leader of the Chief Emmanuel Iwanyanwu-led Nigerian National Congress. In 1990, he was appointed Chief Press Secretary to Chief Tom Ikimi, the first National Chairman of the National Republican Convention (N. R. C.). In 1991, he became the Special Assistant to the Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, former head of the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO) and the leading presidential aspirant of the NRC. This is where Fani-Kayode learned the nitty-gritty of Nigerian politics.
Disturbed by the massive oppression and persecution that the Yoruba people of south-western Nigeria particularly were being subjected to by Gen. Sani Abacha’s military junta, Fani-Kayode went into self-imposed exile in 1996 and pitched his tent with the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) abroad. From Accra, Ghana, together with the likes of the Oxford-trained lawyer Chief Tunde Edu and others, he played an active role in the fight against Abacha and for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria.
Fani-Kayode eventually came back to Nigeria in 2001 and in that same year, through the auspices of his close friend and the Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Akin Oshuntokun, he met President Olusegun Obasanjo. According to Fani-Kayode, Obasanjo encouraged him about the future of Nigeria and rekindled his faith in the possibility of a truly united and new Nigeria.
In 2002, Fani-Kayode became one of the pioneers of the Progressive Action Movement (PAM), a visionary political movement of young and dynamic politicians. In 2003, he was appointed by President Obasanjo as a member of his Presidential campaign team for the 2003 Presidential election. After President Obasanjo won that election, Fani-Kayode was appointed as Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the President. He effectively became Obasanjo’s key spokesman and his number one defender and champion.
Since then he has been highly celebrated in the country by those who support and admire Obasanjo due to his total loyalty and commitment to the former President and his courageous submissions and commentaries. Fani-Kayode is also widely acknowledged as being one of the most formidable debaters of his generation. He is a passionate and persuasive public speaker.
In 2006, Fani-Kayode was appointed as the Minister of Culture and Tourism. That same year after a minor cabinet reshuffle, he was re-deployed to the Aviation Ministry. There brought to an end the cycle of plane crashes (five in one year) that took place in Nigeria before he assumed that office. He also introduced a number of reforms which positively repositioned the aviation sector.
Whilst he was in charge of Public Affairs at the Presidency, Fani-Kayode was President Obasanjo’s chief ideologue. He was respected and admired by those who supported Obasanjo but he was disliked and feared by those who opposed him. This was as a consequence of the passionate and aggressive way in which Fani-Kayode took on Obasanjo’s many traducers and defended the President. The office of Public Affairs within the Presidency effectively became a powerful weapon of war in Obasanjo’s arsenal whilst Fani-Kayode headed it. He reported directly to Obasanjo and he was regarded by the President more as a trusted son than an aide.
For this he paid a price and he often admits that his job at Public Affairs cost him many friends and relationships. During the Senate Ministerial screening session in 2006 when he had to appear before the whole of the Nigerian Senate in order to be screened before his nomination as a minister could be confirmed, he shed some light and offered some explanations on his role as Special Assistant to Mr. President on Public Affairs. Regardless of which side of the political divide you belong to, one thing is clear; Fani-Kayode is intelligent, well-educated, experienced, politically ambitious, resilient, and in my view one of those that will play a key role in the future of this country. This is mainly due to his absolute faith in God and also as a consequence of his deep religious convictions.
His appointment as Director of Media and Publicity for the People’s Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation by President Goodluck Jonathan in January 2015 did not come by accident. It was a well thought out decision. He is doing the job meritoriously and getting credits from his numerous admirers. Indeed, Fani-Kayode is a man of destiny and he can certainly hold his own and perhaps even outshine some of the brightest in the world’s political stage today. The new Nigeria will certainly need such men to thrive.
Emmanuel Ajibulu is a social commentator on national issues, wrote from Three Arms Zone, Abuja.
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