Melaye vs. Fani-Kayode: A Season of Clowns and Jesters

While most Nigerians are currently worried over how to make the right choices in the 2023 general election to rescue the country from her enormous challenges, a former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, and an ex-member of the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye, in what many have described as their bloated egos, have been uttering inanities, and calling each other clowns and political scavengers in stage-managed videos of their absurdities in their bids to promote the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, respectively, Ejiofor Alike reports

Many social media commentators were outraged last week by what many described as a show of shame by a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode and an ex-member of the National Assembly, Dino Melaye. While many Nigerians are seriously disturbed by the plethora of security and economic challenges are that currently plaguing the country, the two politicians-turned-comedians have been busy recently showing off their living rooms in what should best be described as children’s pranks, which were unbecoming of serious-minded politicians who once held important leadership positions. These two politicians shamefully turned to skit makers in their attempts to ride roughshod over each other and demonstrate superiority or supremacy.

The former aviation minister stirred up a hornet’s nest last Sunday via his verified Facebook page where he called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to suspend the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.

Fani-Kayode, who is of the APC, claimed that Melaye had revealed that all the PDP governors spent money to get Ayu elected as National Chairman.

“This is a grave and serious matter. It is a public confession of a criminal offence made by a senior figure within the PDP cabal that committed the said offence,” he reportedly said.

While calling on INEC to nullify Ayu’s election, he further called on security operatives to arrest Melaye in order to probe his revelation.

In his response, which was laced with insults and diatribes, Melaye, on the same Sunday and on his verified Facebook page, called him a “political scavenger,” and told him that the PDP has no position to offer him.

Melaye queried Fani-Kayode’s statement as “an incoherent gibberish produced from his temporary relief from insanity. How can one explain his momentary consciousness to react to an interview long granted, if not that his world of reality is not in sync with the world of sound minds?”

He alleged that Fani-Kayode had contacted a former Deputy Spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Timi Frank, in a bid to lobby for a position in the Atiku-Okowa campaign team.

 The former senator recalled how Fani-Kayode worked for the failed presidential bids of Governor Yahaya Bello and Senator Ahmad Lawan.

“Now that campaign structures have been formed by parties and he’s sidelined, having lost face everywhere, he has found the PDP as the access card to his next meal,” he said.

Melaye’s allegation was not strange considering Fani-Kayode’s history of switching his membership of political parties.

Both Fani-Kayode and Melaye have a controversial history of switching membership of the two main parties in their political careers but the former aviation minister’s record is legendary.

By leaving the PDP where he cut his teeth in politics, for the APC, rejoining the PDP and later defecting to the APC, the former minister is believed to be incapable of sustaining relationships in his political career. 

Responding to Melaye’s tirades, Fani-Kayode mocked the former senator for his humble background.

In his Facebook page last Thursday, the former minister posted an old picture of Melaye where he was said to be drinking what looked like soaked garri (product of cassava).

“You can take a man out of the jungle but you can’t take the jungle out of a man! This clown is a real jungle,” the former minister wrote, mockingly.

The ex-minister also posted a video of Melaye when he was arrested by the police in 2019 for illegal possession of arms, and alleged sponsoring of hoodlums in Kogi State.

 “I have never seen such weakness and cowardice. Is this the man that wants to lead the charge for a serious presidential contender? We will eat them for breakfast! No wonder he got upset when I called for his arrest and that of their party chairman. The idea of the police bundling him again drove him insane and he started to insult his elders, betters and those of us that fed him in the past,” Fani-Kayode wrote.

Before posting the video, the former minister had earlier issued a statement, titled: “Dino Melaye: No More Arses For You to Lick Here,” where he claimed that “Melaye has been crying and wetting his pants ever since” he made the call for his arrest.

He said Melaye’s response was laced with only with insults and a long diatribe of wild allegations and subjective invectives.

“Is that what you call a spokesman for a presidential campaign?” he asked adding, “I don’t have time for clowns, filthy peasants and desperate cowards but I couldn’t help but notice the anger in his response. He was crying like a baby. And it gave me pleasure.”

He also recalled that Melaye had worked for Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Governor Yahaya Bello and Governor Nyesom Wike, before he finally moved to Atiku.

According to him, these politicians dumped Melaye  when they found out that he is “ill-bred ignoramus, shameless hustler, infantile prankster, jobless bully and desperate court jester.”

In his attempt to demonstrate that he fed Melaye as he claimed, the former aviation minister turned to a professional skit maker, and posted a video of where two young men whom he referred to as his security detail entered his sitting room to inform him that Melaye was waiting at his gate and wanted to see him. In the script, which was very professional, the former minister quickly reminded the two men that the notice on his gate clearly stated that no stray dog would be allowed into his premises. He asked them to “find something” for Melaye and dismiss him.

In his swift response, Melaye posted an amateurish video where three young men came inside his living room to beg him to invite Fani-Kayode for a dinner but the former Senator quickly rejected their request and walked out on them. While some social media commentators described the two politicians as clowns, others said their behaviour was childish.

The inanities uttered by the two former leaders and the stage-managed videos of their absurdities where they made jesters of themselves were evidence of how Nigerian politicians have sunk so low to remain relevant in their political careers. Most of these political leaders are not concerned about the plights of the masses or how to tackle the serious challenges that are afflicting the country.

Many believe that the shameful conduct of these two politicians portrays their political parties as unserious and unprepared to tackle the serious problems overwhelming the country.

It is high time their principals called them to order before they before they make mockery of their campaigns. All Nigerians want to see at this juncture, is not entertainment, but issue-based campaigns and how the challenges confronting the country would be tackled.