Festus Adedayo’s Satire & When a Writer’s Sagacity Calls For Questioning -By Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

After reading the satire on FLICKERS authored by Festus Adedayo which he titled Yes, Aisha Buhari Eats From Poor People’s Money! Calling him out on the basis of what I called amateurism or very poor journalism became a temptation which I could not resist or was afraid to fall into because of the following reasons: (1) The crux of the matter which was whether Aminu’s utterance was unguarded (2) Why he thought Aminu was right about his allegations and (3) Why he thought that Aisha Buhari was wrong in having Aminu arrested by the DSS.

For every sane person who followed the political events in the country, opinions were sharply divided over the insinuation of one Aminu Adamu – a final year student of the Federal University in Dutse, Jigawa state – against the current First Lady and wife of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria – Hajia Aisha Muhammadu Buhari as well as the manner in which the First Lady chose to react to the situation. In all the opinions that I was privileged to read, Festus Adedayo’s thoughts was the most absurd, sentimental, bereft of facts and amateur.

Like I said in the first paragraph, there are three (3) reasons which formed the basis for most of the comments that this matter generated. Those three reasons were the framework for either applauding Aminu and rebuking Aisha or applauding Aisha and rebuking Aminu. But despite attempting to use that framework, Adedayo’s contributions came through as outlandish, filled with bitterness and devoid of any journalistic sense or experience. For instance, here’s what he thinks about the crux of the matter which was if the utterance was defamatory or not.

“The truth is that the First Lady and the Nigeria Police which charged Adamu for defamation by his tweet, perhaps due to the many decades of military rule, do not understand the proper concept of democracy; nor do they have a whiff of what representative democracy is all about.” And then off he goes trying to educate the public about representative democracy. In the mind of Festus, the concept of democracy and representative democracy automatically eroded the fundamental rights of a citizen to file for defamation of character because of governance.

What a naive opinion! How does democracy or representative democracy explain the First Lady’s ineligibility for filing for defamation of her character? Ok, let’s assume that it could explain such ineligibility but how does it apply to Aisha Buhari, who is NOT even an office holder or represented in the constitution? Nigerians are wide aware of the fact that even the president himself had in the past confirmed her non-entitlement as far as the constitution is concerned when he openly declared to the world that Aisha belonged to ‘za oza room.’

So, if representative democracy foreclosed Aisha’s chances of reacting the way she did, then she had every right to so react because SHE IS NOT AN OFFICE HOLDER OR AN ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE! For this reason, Festus Adedayo’s credentials as a writer and journalist needed to be assessed again. Also, as he gradually moved away from his lectures on democracy unto figures, Festus Adedayo committed yet another sacrilege by quoting the budget estimate of President Muhammadu Buhari’s office instead Aisha Buhari’s.

Hear him again, “In the same budget, the sum of N40.5 million was penciled for the construction and equipping of a new presidential kitchen and a total of N508.71 million to be spent on foodstuffs and refreshments, amounts which stands at N331.79 million and N176.92 million for the offices of the president and vice-president respectively. I am not aware that the above sums emanated from the private wealth of Mrs. Buhari’s husband or from proceeds of his cows in Daura.” Did Festus Adedayo show evidence of any money or Aisha’s office?

Again, the answer is No! Come to think of it; if Festus Adedayo would applaud Aminu for defaming the character of the First Lady (who is NOT AN ELECTED OFFICIAL); would he also accept defamation if he (Festus Adedayo) happened to work with the presidency as a writer or reporter? Your guess is as good as mine. To say that that write up was the most charlatan piece of commentary I read recently is to be economical. It is in fact the worst that I have read in a decade! And till the end of his piece, Festus jumped from one gibberish story to another.

If I haven’t read anywhere of an elected representative that filed for defamation of character while serving as government official, at least I can point to the former Singaporean leader – Late Lee Kuan Yew – who was famous for taking any Singaporean citizen to court for character assassination. You can check his book From Third World to First. But only in Adedayo’s mind, would one expect to find the likes of Aminu Adamu eligible for non-prosecution because he defamed the character of a person in government!

It is important that I made my points clear and which are that Aisha Buhari – in my opinion – was very lenient to Aminu Adamu, she should’ve gone ahead with the prosecutions to serve as deterrent to others. Festus, if only you understood the damage on this woman’s image within a global space like Twitter; then you will know the emotional turmoil that Aminu caused the First Lady and, maybe; just maybe, you would’ve certainly joined in the rebuke of Aminu Adamu for violating the rights of a fellow citizen to mental wellness and happiness.

For the records, the freedom of speech bill does not empower anybody to talk carelessly but it certainly does empower everyone to talk to the extent that they had enough evidence to substantiate. Aminu had no evidence and, you know it. The rising spate of clinical depression would further narrow utterances just because mental health has become an important part of any person’s physical health which must not be treated with levity. And on this note, Aminu’s comments were clearly vile and should never be thrown at anyone in government or not.

Finally, I must not fail to commend our First Lady for demonstrating the motherly restraint by not allowing the young boy’s provocation dictate her mood. The point has been made and which every Nigerian must now accept namely; that Hajia Aisha Buhari is not an office holder, does not have access to the taxpayer’s monies and certainly does not feed on the monies of the poor. Also, Nigerians must grow up from the habit of associating everyone with the failure of this government just because they are angry with government’s incompetence.

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh is a Mental Health Activist (MHA) and writes from Abuja. 08062577718 (WhatsApp only).