Opinion: Eze Ayodele Fayose Goes To Court By Tatalo Alamu

Fayose and IPOB Leader, Kanu

And whilst we are still on the subject of the Ottoman presidency and its endgame, it is meet to report certain developments in the polity which may point towards or foreshadow future developments. It may well be that the famous and much rhapsodized handshake across the Niger which eluded the gnarled ancestors of the current political class is finally here with us.

It was quite a sight this past week to watch his Excellency, Eze Peter Ayodele Fayose, the Eze gburugburu of Oshokoland and Sarkin Tulasi of Ado Ekiti, appear in court to fraternize and felicitate with Nnamdi Kanu, the embattled Biafran agitator. 

Fayose was resplendent in the flaming and fiery red cap of the Igbo chieftain and his man pikin be man pikin body language. Even by the normal fare of the Theatre of political absurdity this was quite an outlandish scene.

Without wasting anybody’s time, the Yoruba eze began shooting straight from the hip. The enfant terrible of Ekiti politics is a joyful agrarian who has no time for big grammar or recondite logic.

He has beaten the so called political elite of his state many times before and he will beat them hands up or hands down any time any day and anywhere.

With minimum concession to political literacy or historical logic, Fayose proclaimed his state to be an integral part of Biafra. The referendum can come later. 

There may be some method to the madness. Fayose may well be understudying the dynamics of mob psychology which has seen the entire Igbo political arena overrun by mobocracy or the rule of the political mob. Let the Yoruba political elite take note.

But fair is fair, and snooper is not a political coward afraid to speak his mind. When the current farce unravels everybody will have to bear their fathers’ name. Political containment is better than futile firefighting. Had certain gentlemanly agreements reached with Fayose been scrupulously adhered to in the true spirit of omoluabi, Fayose would have been inside pissing out rather than outside pissing in. 

Meanwhile, Oshoko is welcomed to Biafra. The last time snooper googled his Afao Ekiti homestead, it was Aflao, a border town between Togo and Ghana that popped up. If this is not a horoscope of Hegira or the second flight into exile, we wonder what it is.

Tatalo Alamu is a columnist with The Nation Newspaper