By Adetayo Adekunle
Let me start by saying that I do not hold brief for Mr. Laolu Akande (SSA Media, OVP) or anybody for that matter.
Accordingly, I urge readers to kindly consider this rejoinder as that of “a meddlesome interloper” who jumped into the fray after reading an article and a response.
With all sense of responsibility, Mr. Festus Adedayo’s response to Mr. Laolu Akande’s rejoinder is rather too shallow, puerile, jejune and below board.
In the article under review, Mr. Adedayo committed the same infractions he alleged Mr. Laolu Akande for.
The entire write-up is high on vitriolic but ephemerally low on substance.
Rather than go personal, methinks it’s better to respond to the questions posed to him by Laolu Akande in his rejoinder.
Or was Mr. Adedayo expecting “his supposed friend” to say thank you for spewing unsubstantiated gibberish against his principal?
Without any doubt whatsoever, Mr. Adedayo must have been consuming cheap substances to have alleged that the VP viciously prayed to be substantive President when his boss was sick. Like a scene from a Yoruba movie, Festus further asserted that a PMB ally came in and the VP as well as his Pastors were shell shocked.
If this is not a lie from the pit of hell, what then is it?
Can Mr. Adedayo swear with whatever he believes in that this is the truth?
Since Mr. Adedayo has also decided to be afflicted by selective amnesia, I will assist him to put certain things in the right perspective.
To start with, Mr. Laolu Akande “NEVER SUPPLANTED” anybody before he got his editorial job in the Tribune. Facts at my disposal indicates that prior to his (Akande’s) appointment, there was a competitive exam and interview where he led with barely 1%. A colleague, Akinjide Akintola came second in that examination.
Secondly, to all intents and purposes, Mr. Akande was your senior colleague at Tribune. You would recall that as early as 1992, Akande was already a household name in Guardian and Nigerian journalism as a whole. As a matter of fact, he was a senior editor before the then Mr., now Prof Wale Adebanwi brought you on board as a writer/reporter. You were at best a subordinate, co-worker and acquaintance but certainly not a friend.
Mr. Adedayo, can you say you have paid your benefactor Wale Adebanwi rightly and justly for all he did for you? What is your relationship with him today?
Furthermore, Akande is still friends with other members of the the 5- man circle you referred to -Prof. Wale Adebanwi of Oxford, Prof Adeolu Akande of Igbinedion University, Dr. Segun Olatunji and Mr. Bode Opeseitan. All the aforementioned were his friends and they are still best of friends till today.
The same Laolu Akande you described as stagnant has had the rare privilege of interviewing a sitting President of the United States and is currently serving in the Presidency of Nigeria. His appointment and reapportionment were effected effortlessly.
Nigerians surely know the writer that vehemently criticized the process leading to Dr. Ahmed Lawan’s emergence as Senate President in daytime only for the so called public intellectual to attend an interview with the aim of working for that same government he pretends to loathe. If I may ask, where is the integrity?
Mr. Adedayo, it is good to flaunt one’s achievements but then as a Yoruba man you ought to know about the proverbial child who described his father’s farm as the largest in the land before visiting larger farms.
The likes of Rt. Hon. Mojeed Alabi (with six degrees in Law and Political Science), Dr. Akin Onigbinde (another fine gentleman with chain of degrees in Law and Political Science) and other greats whose academic achievements are mouthwatering do not gallivant around town with their degrees but they carry themselves with grace and humility.
While I wish you well in your delusion of grandeur, I can only pity youngsters who see a role model in you.
But please don’t forget to unveil the identities of “the Pastors” and “the Buhari ally” who strayed into “frantic prayers for Osinbajo”.
Until then, ire oooooooo.
Adekunle, a public affairs analyst, writes from Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
