The Festus Adedayo They Thought They Could Pull Down -By Festus Adedayo


I was just informed a few minutes ago of the withdrawal of the appointment offered me as the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Nigerian Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan. I had hitherto enjoyed every of the diatribes provoked by the appointment.

I was told it was the most discussed issue in Nigeria in the last few days. Of course, it was not humanly possible for me to read the over 5000 tweets and thousands of comments on other social media. As at the time of writing this, the issue was said to be the most-discussed in Nigeria on the social media. Said to be the brainchild of some hired Rottweiler dogs loyal to some lords in the APC, a campaign dubbed #sackfestus adedayo was mounted immediately and within hours, had given birth to thousands of recruits. Many of the commentators who took liberty to harangue me have no idea of who I am and went on a railroaded binge to dress me in an alien robe.

Of a truth, I am a venomous critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, with no apologies. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Adams Oshiomhole, Ibikunle Amosu, Bukola Saraki and several others have been on the receiving end of the unkind temper of my pen. But call my attention to five pieces I did in dispraise of Tinubu, I will call yours to the three I did in his praise, at very grave danger to my life and career, even though Tinubu can’t pick me up in a crowd.

Someday when he and I meet, I hope to tell him the consequential bullet I once bit for his sake. Since 1998 when I began column-writing, I have a graveyard of public personalities whom my cudgel has whiplashed for perceived infractions in power. Give me 10 pieces I wrote in uncomplimentary review of President Buhari, I will give you 20 I did in utter vilification of Jonathan, his ministers and those close to him. Jonathan never raised a voice against me. One thing my traducers don’t know is that I have no attachment to those criticisms. I am like a prophet; once I deliver my message, I move on.

What those who are vilifying me for always writing against government should have done was to rise from their laziness and conduct an x-ray of my writing. In my close to 20 years of public sphere intervention, I am a rabid anti-establishment person. I believe that in establishment lies the plague of the Nigerian state and my writings reflect this much. Even though I am everything but a saint, I believe that government should reflect the highest moral echelon of society and those who run it should make covenant of chastity and fidelity with themselves.

More fundamentally is that my pen knows no friend or foe. Very early in my writing career, I learnt that I could go far in the people’s heart if I sided with the public against government. This was abetted by my philosophy degree background which teaches me to always look for disorder, even in order. I am a natural pessimist and see pessimism in optimism. Anyone who does a critical assessment of my journey as a columnist will see this without any equivocation.

I doubt if any government has received greater unfavourable reviews from my pen than the Olusegun Obasanjo government. His ministers were weekly captives of my acidic pen. His Chief Press Secretary, Chief Tunji Oseni, upon once inviting me to the monthly Presidential Media Chat, told me to my face that he regretted inviting a rabid anti-Obasanjo journalist like me to the event. Chief Bola Ige, God bless his soul, was the first recipient of my column’s bile in the government. He wrote Page 9 while I wrote Page 3 of the Sunday Tribune, with his Uncle Bola’s Column, even as Attorney General of the Federation.

A few weeks after the ministers’ inauguration and they were given Wardrobe allowance, I flagellated all of them, including Chief Ige, a known acolyte of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who owned the medium. When Chief Ige reacted to my attack and spoke of me in bad light, I took him up again and almost insinuated that he was senile. Rather than take further umbrage, he apologized to me. This was the Ige who, one day when I went to his house, in the company of other colleagues, once commended my writing.

Very scant people know that the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, is my friend. A few weeks ago, I rudely dragged him to the public square over his decision to cancel the N3000 school fees in the state, so much that those who know my association with him asked if there was a dissonance in our relationship. If you rummage through the archives, you would see lacerations on the body of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, products of my unkind jabs. It began from 1999. If I have written 100 articles referencing Abubakar, we may barely find three that are positive about him. Apart from seeing him on the television, I probably saw him once in my life in the crowd.

Former governors Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State, Olusegun Osoba, Adebayo Alao-Akala, Rashidi Ladoja received unkind tackles from me. I am very close to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State; the day I felt his decision was against my people of Akure, I wrote against him. Rummage through the archives, you would see how I pounced on Senator Bukola Saraki severally with my pen; you would think we once sparred over possession of same woman. The truth is, my writings are political party and tribe-blind. I detest injustice, politics and run away from politicians as much as I can. One thing you cannot accuse me of being complicit of is the vermin that has eaten into the fabrics of my journalism profession. While I am not a saint, I have never blackmailed anyone in my life and I have very scant veneration for the god of Mammon.

The person who nominated me for this office under contention will bear me witness: I told him point blank when he intimated me of the proposed nomination that I had sworn never to do the job of a publicist again in my life, after my two experiences in government. It is a job that almost asks for your life; where you have no respite of any kind. More importantly, all my life, I have never lobbied for any office. Second is that, I believe that my stints in government have almost killed the deposit of writing talent in me. Judging by my beginning as a writer, today I should be one of Africa’s most-read fiction writers.

Meeting Senate President Ahmed Lawan in Abuja rekindled my hope in Nigeria. Like me, he is tribe-blind. He is also very unassuming and cerebral. He interviewed me and another candidate as if we were in a doctoral defence class and settled for me as his choice. Nigerian politicians have a lot to learn from that gentleman and his politics of blindness to tribe and political party affiliation. He told me he wanted excellence and would pick whoever among us he saw as equating that score.

I have read all manner of lies concocted against me on the social media by politicians, all because they want this job at all cost. I do not have any problem with that. One post said Tinubu gave me a Lexus jeep. Those who are close to me know how mendacious this is as I have never even entered such Luxury in my life. That I was considered for the job is enough happiness for me and that, in my life, I would see a Nigerian like Lawan who has such pan-Nigerian mindset, is a great accomplishment.

I was told the job has been withdrawn. I thank Lawan for the offer. He will be my model of a good Nigerian forever. If those who spearheaded the attack thought it would silence me in my bid for a good country, they have another think coming. I can never be silenced. I will always advocate for a good country; whether it hurts Buhari or anyone.

If I had finally settled for the job, I would be doing it at a great cost. I am right now a student of the Nigerian Law School and the rules forbid my working while a student. I would have had to walk away from a painful studentship I embarked upon last November that will come to an end in about two and half months from now. It is providence in action that I am not going to have the job.

To those who spearheaded it, I have no space in my heart for any acrimony against them. It has further strengthened my belief that we must rid Nigeria of hate and politics of the stomach. One thing that Nigerians who read my column should be rest assured of is that I will never waver on the side of power or any politician in government for a pot of porridge. According to Bob Goldstein, “a principle isn’t a principle until it costs you something.” I am happy that this is what my quest for a good society, through my writing, has cost me. This is my creed.

https://thenigerialawyer.com/the-festus-adedayo-they-thought-they-could-pull-down-by-festus-adedayo/

This is one person i like so much.

Thank God that you didnt get the job. They will have succeeded in changing the kind of person you are.

Ask femi adeshina.

Las las APC remains a party of liars and clowns.

E

This piece isn't for lazy readers...

If you read till the end, you will notice what a mockery of competence and intelligence by this APC government...
This man is a talented writer but APC chose to sacrifice competence and intelligence on the sacrilegious alter of ignorance and shamelessness

Guy is just a clown. This silly attempt at damage control is dead on arrival. You are down already. APC supporters only dragged you into the mud where you rightly belong. Only men of very low morals who lacks principles and integrity goes about lobbying a government they criticize so much for an appointment.

They've already pulled him out of the Senate so the rest is irrelevant.

He should go back to opposing APC as he's always done.

You can't work for MTN and collect salary from Etisalat.

He should move on..

In life, sometimes you win, sometimes you loose

Great writing

seunmsg:
Guys is just a clown. This silly attempt at damage control is dead on arrival. You are down already. APC supporters only dragged you into the mud where you rightly belong. Only men of very low morals who lacks principles and integrity goes about lobbying a government they criticize so much for an appointment.

In as much as I agree with you, such mentality is lethal to true journalism. If everyone has to be crucified for standing neutral, it will be a dangerous trend for the society.

zombies supporting apc 're a scurge

ba7man:
They've already pulled him out of the Senate so the rest is irrelevant.

He should go back to opposing APC as he's always done.

You can't work for MTN and collect salary from Etisalat.

So who is the Mtn and who is the Etisalat in this case?

The man was just being nailed for standing neutral. He already confirmed that he was given the appointment based on merit after an interview session with Lawan.

One thing I strongly believe is that APC has just succeeded in making him even more popular.

You can take this post to the bank as we await what the future holds for him...

Such a talented writer deserves more.

respect80:

So who is the Mtn and who is the Etisalat in this case?

The man was just being nailed for standing neutral. He already confirmed that he was given the appointment based on merit after an interview session with Lawan.

One thing I strongly believe is that APC has just succeeded in making him even more popular.

You can take this post to the bank as we await what the future holds for him...

Such a talented writer deserves more.

All this epistles are not necessary.. Let Pdp appoints him.. Shikena

How to shoot your shot
1. Buy him food anonymously from different restaurants for seven days.
2. Review yourself on the 8th day and ask him which food was the best
3. Ask him on a date to the restaurant he picked

�. You will be needing over 50k sha

Hardly would you see a critic these days whose major aim isn't to be noticed by the government and be invited to come and 'chop'. Dr. Reuben Abati was once a fierce critic of the then GEJ government but ended being his spokesperson.

This gentleman shouldn't have allowed himself rubbished by the politicians who have endured the missiles from his 'unkind' pen over the times. This could have been a set up ab initio to silent him or would he have the moral right to criticize Lawan?

APC prefers clowns and bootlickers

Since Gov'nor Seyi Makinde is his friend, he should go to Oyo and lobby to be appointed as Adviser on new or old media. So he didn't he's a student of the Law School when he went for interview, up to the point of accepting the offer, only resort to this face saving after his past caught up with him.

Ehn

seunmsg:
Guys is just a clown. This silly attempt at damage control is dead on arrival. You are down already. APC supporters only dragged you into the mud where you rightly belong. Only men of very low morals who lacks principles and integrity goes about lobbying a government they criticize so much for an appointment.

Firstly the government belongs to ALL Nigerians. Not only APC. For a government to succeed, it needs competent people whatever their affiliations.
APC supporters are already in the mud as you rightly said but they failed to drag him with them. Because in the first place he didn't lobby for it and haven't even accepted the offer.

Nigga is pained... haq haq haq haq...

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Mr. Festus Adedayo is better off continuing in his patriotic WATCHDOG duty through his writings. His rejection should serve as an AWARD of national recognition to him. It means his writings had been making positive impact. He should also see the positive side of his rejection namely that his stock, popularity and reputation have all soared. He should be happy rather than sad.

Now let's face it, Mr. Adedayo would have done what BMO and APC did if he was on the otheir side. In politics, it is dangerous to have an inhouse critic who abhors memo-sending but shouts from rooftop. First Lady Aisha Buhari is one of such critics and it is risky to add another. If Mr. Adedayo had been retained on this job, he will be so uncomfortable when things go wrong that he will forced by his conscience to shout from rooftop, which will ultimately scandalize the Government and bring unnecessary friction between Senate President and Presidency

respect80:
This piece isn't for lazy readers...

If you read till the end, you will notice what a mockery of competence and intelligence by this APC government...
This man is a talented writer but APC chose to sacrifice competence and intelligence on the sacrilegious alter of ignorance and shamelessness

Shut up! you couldn't have read the whole thing and still come up with this lame point! He was desperate about being appointed.

respect80:
The Festus Adedayo They Thought They Could Pull Down -By Festus Adedayo


I was just informed a few minutes ago of the withdrawal of the appointment offered me as the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Nigerian Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan. I had hitherto enjoyed every of the diatribes provoked by the appointment.

I was told it was the most discussed issue in Nigeria in the last few days. Of course, it was not humanly possible for me to read the over 5000 tweets and thousands of comments on other social media. As at the time of writing this, the issue was said to be the most-discussed in Nigeria on the social media. Said to be the brainchild of some hired Rottweiler dogs loyal to some lords in the APC, a campaign dubbed #sackfestus adedayo was mounted immediately and within hours, had given birth to thousands of recruits. Many of the commentators who took liberty to harangue me have no idea of who I am and went on a railroaded binge to dress me in an alien robe.

Of a truth, I am a venomous critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, with no apologies. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Adams Oshiomhole, Ibikunle Amosu, Bukola Saraki and several others have been on the receiving end of the unkind temper of my pen. But call my attention to five pieces I did in dispraise of Tinubu, I will call yours to the three I did in his praise, at very grave danger to my life and career, even though Tinubu can’t pick me up in a crowd.

Someday when he and I meet, I hope to tell him the consequential bullet I once bit for his sake. Since 1998 when I began column-writing, I have a graveyard of public personalities whom my cudgel has whiplashed for perceived infractions in power. Give me 10 pieces I wrote in uncomplimentary review of President Buhari, I will give you 20 I did in utter vilification of Jonathan, his ministers and those close to him. Jonathan never raised a voice against me. One thing my traducers don’t know is that I have no attachment to those criticisms. I am like a prophet; once I deliver my message, I move on.

What those who are vilifying me for always writing against government should have done was to rise from their laziness and conduct an x-ray of my writing. In my close to 20 years of public sphere intervention, I am a rabid anti-establishment person. I believe that in establishment lies the plague of the Nigerian state and my writings reflect this much. Even though I am everything but a saint, I believe that government should reflect the highest moral echelon of society and those who run it should make covenant of chastity and fidelity with themselves.

More fundamentally is that my pen knows no friend or foe. Very early in my writing career, I learnt that I could go far in the people’s heart if I sided with the public against government. This was abetted by my philosophy degree background which teaches me to always look for disorder, even in order. I am a natural pessimist and see pessimism in optimism. Anyone who does a critical assessment of my journey as a columnist will see this without any equivocation.

I doubt if any government has received greater unfavourable reviews from my pen than the Olusegun Obasanjo government. His ministers were weekly captives of my acidic pen. His Chief Press Secretary, Chief Tunji Oseni, upon once inviting me to the monthly Presidential Media Chat, told me to my face that he regretted inviting a rabid anti-Obasanjo journalist like me to the event. Chief Bola Ige, God bless his soul, was the first recipient of my column’s bile in the government. He wrote Page 9 while I wrote Page 3 of the Sunday Tribune, with his Uncle Bola’s Column, even as Attorney General of the Federation.

A few weeks after the ministers’ inauguration and they were given Wardrobe allowance, I flagellated all of them, including Chief Ige, a known acolyte of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who owned the medium. When Chief Ige reacted to my attack and spoke of me in bad light, I took him up again and almost insinuated that he was senile. Rather than take further umbrage, he apologized to me. This was the Ige who, one day when I went to his house, in the company of other colleagues, once commended my writing.

Very scant people know that the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, is my friend. A few weeks ago, I rudely dragged him to the public square over his decision to cancel the N3000 school fees in the state, so much that those who know my association with him asked if there was a dissonance in our relationship. If you rummage through the archives, you would see lacerations on the body of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, products of my unkind jabs. It began from 1999. If I have written 100 articles referencing Abubakar, we may barely find three that are positive about him. Apart from seeing him on the television, I probably saw him once in my life in the crowd.

Former governors Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State, Olusegun Osoba, Adebayo Alao-Akala, Rashidi Ladoja received unkind tackles from me. I am very close to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State; the day I felt his decision was against my people of Akure, I wrote against him. Rummage through the archives, you would see how I pounced on Senator Bukola Saraki severally with my pen; you would think we once sparred over possession of same woman. The truth is, my writings are political party and tribe-blind. I detest injustice, politics and run away from politicians as much as I can. One thing you cannot accuse me of being complicit of is the vermin that has eaten into the fabrics of my journalism profession. While I am not a saint, I have never blackmailed anyone in my life and I have very scant veneration for the god of Mammon.

The person who nominated me for this office under contention will bear me witness: I told him point blank when he intimated me of the proposed nomination that I had sworn never to do the job of a publicist again in my life, after my two experiences in government. It is a job that almost asks for your life; where you have no respite of any kind. More importantly, all my life, I have never lobbied for any office. Second is that, I believe that my stints in government have almost killed the deposit of writing talent in me. Judging by my beginning as a writer, today I should be one of Africa’s most-read fiction writers.

Meeting Senate President Ahmed Lawan in Abuja rekindled my hope in Nigeria. Like me, he is tribe-blind. He is also very unassuming and cerebral. He interviewed me and another candidate as if we were in a doctoral defence class and settled for me as his choice. Nigerian politicians have a lot to learn from that gentleman and his politics of blindness to tribe and political party affiliation. He told me he wanted excellence and would pick whoever among us he saw as equating that score.

I have read all manner of lies concocted against me on the social media by politicians, all because they want this job at all cost. I do not have any problem with that. One post said Tinubu gave me a Lexus jeep. Those who are close to me know how mendacious this is as I have never even entered such Luxury in my life. That I was considered for the job is enough happiness for me and that, in my life, I would see a Nigerian like Lawan who has such pan-Nigerian mindset, is a great accomplishment.

I was told the job has been withdrawn. I thank Lawan for the offer. He will be my model of a good Nigerian forever. If those who spearheaded the attack thought it would silence me in my bid for a good country, they have another think coming. I can never be silenced. I will always advocate for a good country; whether it hurts Buhari or anyone.

If I had finally settled for the job, I would be doing it at a great cost. I am right now a student of the Nigerian Law School and the rules forbid my working while a student. I would have had to walk away from a painful studentship I embarked upon last November that will come to an end in about two and half months from now. It is providence in action that I am not going to have the job.

To those who spearheaded it, I have no space in my heart for any acrimony against them. It has further strengthened my belief that we must rid Nigeria of hate and politics of the stomach. One thing that Nigerians who read my column should be rest assured of is that I will never waver on the side of power or any politician in government for a pot of porridge. According to Bob Goldstein, “a principle isn’t a principle until it costs you something.” I am happy that this is what my quest for a good society, through my writing, has cost me. This is my creed.

https://thenigerialawyer.com/the-festus-adedayo-they-thought-they-could-pull-down-by-festus-adedayo/

Well crafted and constructed drivel if you ask me.

Adedayo should learn from Adeniyi, Abati, Adeshina and the likes that it is a taboo to defecate in a pool and turn around to drink from that same pool

It was wrong for the Senate President to even consider you for a role in a government you treat with such disdain. It is even wronger for you to have considered accepting the role. There are a lot of non-partisan, competent hands that can be brought in to do the same job.

Pick a side and stay true to your ideals and creed...if you have any.

It is well.

Nice one! APC criticizes other but are intolerant of same.This is why they want or have already gag the media after coming into govt.All Nigerians cant be sai baba zombies.

Oga you're down already.

Hehehe. He is a hungry Obote man!
The thing pain am sha

Rubbish.

So you would have taken the job, abandon your law school and also continue to criticize the APC government,abi?

It is obvious your critisms were just for attention and political appointment

What a hypocrite!