When Abdulkarim Adebisi Akande decided to honour an invitation to participate in a programme organised by Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), never did he envisage that his comments would elicit chain reactions from his former political colleagues.
Akande, who is currently, the national chairman of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), took a swipe at his old friends in the progressive Awolowo political school when he described them as political beggars, who feed on the crumps from the tables of any politician in power.
In his outburst he singled out personalities in the pan-Yoruba socio cultural group, Afenifere such as Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and a former secretary to the government of the federation, Chief Olu Falae.
The one-hour programme aired by the station provided an opportunity to react to the decision of the trio to endorse Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State for a second term.
He went combative: “The three of them are glorious political beggars who have lost relevance in the nation’s politics. They are always at the government houses of any person in power to beg for crumps. The so-called leaders are only looking for what they will eat. Of what relevance are they? They cannot point to any individual as their followers even in their home-state.
“Falae, for instance, has always brought bad luck to any political party he belongs to. He brought bad luck to Alliance for Democracy, AD, in 1999 when he was endorsed as the party’s presidential candidate.
“Fasoranti was the man who single-handedly ruined Afenifere. It was in his room that he destroyed the group, while Ayo Adebanjo has never contested any election in his life. He only prides himself as a Yoruba leader without any follower. How do you rate the acceptability of a politician who has never contested any election in his life?”
Hardly had the ripples generated by Akande’s outburst subsided when the trio hit back at him, saying via his actions, he had insulted them. Though Falae in his reaction employed diplomacy by downplaying the allegations against him, Adebanjo a former chairman of the AD came hard on him.
In a statement to media houses, Adebanjo, lashed out at Akande, saying he displayed marked ignorant and was ill-informed about what constitute Awoism saying he would have ignored the ACN’s chieftain assertion that he (Adebanjo) is not an electoral assets haven’t never been elected to public office before.
He countered Aknade’s position: “But let me state for the record and political education of political neophytes like Bisi Akande who was only brought to political relevance by Chief Bola Ige of blessed memory. I contested and won election to Ijebu-Ode local government from my ward in Ogbo/Okelamuran/Ikoto in 1976 under a zero-party election, following the ban on political parties by the military.
“The election was more on the candidate’s individual popularity, since political party platform was banned. It was an election that did not allow an unpopular candidate to be elected under a popular political party platform.
The Afenifere leader said he had no regret over the endorsement of Ondo State governor saying Mimiko’s performance in the last three and half years should be a pride to lovers of good governance. “His achievements are consistent with the ideals and philosophy of Awoism”.
On his part, Falae said as a national chairman of a party, he had refrained from criticizing Akande, wondering why the ACN chairman decided to take him on.“Why is he criticising me now for belonging to a party of my choice and the party collaborating to support a particular candidate, just as the AD did with the All Peoples Party (APP) in 1999 is what I don’t know,” he said.
He said that the decision by his party, the Social Democratic Mega Party, SMDP, decided to have a working relationship with the Labour Party should not give Akande sleepless night since they are not in the same party.
But he faulted Akande position that he brought ill-luck to the AD when he was the presidential candidate of the party in 1999. “What bad luck did he mean I brought to AD? In Osun State where he contested the governorship in 1999, I scored more votes than he did. So, who brought better luck?
“In his own state where he was governor, I got more votes for our party and I won states in the north where southern candidates used to fail; where is the bad luck? I don’t understand what he is talking about.
“You can see that there is no sense in what he is saying at all. It is just out of bitterness; he has a penchant for rudeness and I don’t want to take him on. I am an elder statesman and all he has said are empty and meaningless,” Chief Falae said.
He stated that he attended Dr. Mimiko’s declaration as other leaders did, “He was wrong. I am the national chairman of Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP) which recently went into an electoral cooperation with the Labour Party; we did not join LP. Electoral cooperation is normal; it is natural.
“In 1999, our party, AD, to which Akande belonged, went into an electoral alliance with the APP and I emerged as the joint presidential candidate of that alliance. If that was not abnormal, what is abnormal in SDMP and LP having a joint governorship candidate in Ondo State? If it was right for the presidential election in 1999, it cannot be wrong for governorship election in Ondo State in 2012.”
Falae went emotional when he added, “It was, indeed, an insult for him to have said I pick crumbs from the table of Mimiko and I will ask my lawyer to look into that because Akande ought to know that I was in public service for about 30 years.
“I was permanent secretary for five years. I was managing director of a bank for about five years. I was secretary to the government of the federation for four years and minister of finance for one year. I didn’t steal N1 of government money throughout that period.”
The incidence has been generating reaction from some quarters with people urging the combatants to lay down their swords. “Why are these so called Yoruba leaders washing their dirty linen in public? It is a pity but, can Yoruba for once think,” said one Adebanija Idowu when his reaction was sought.