The Olu of Orile Kemta in Ogun State, Oba Adetokunbo Tejuosho, on Tuesday, lambasted former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, over what he described as an insulting and abusive thank-you note sent to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the special guest of honour during Fayose’s 65th birthday celebration held last week in Lagos.
In a statement titled “A Royal Rebuke to Ayo Fayose”, Tejuosho criticised Fayose, describing his recent thank-you message to the former president as unguarded, uncultured and unwarranted.
Fayose had on Monday lambasted Obasanjo, describing the latter’s comments during the birthday celebration as irresponsible.
He added that the former president should promptly return the money sent to facilitate his attendance at the Lagos event.
Among other vituperations, the former governor also said that Obasanjo was, as some people often claimed, supposed to be kept in a zoo.
Responding, Obasanjo was quoted as saying, “Ayo, thanks for your ‘Thank You’ message which undisguisedly revealed who and what you are — unchanged and unchangeable. Your money has been sent back through Foluso Adeagbo, who brought it, and in the same bag as he brought it, unopened by me.”
However, in a statement made available to journalists on Tuesday, the royal father said the former governor had merely demonstrated to the world his hollowness and haughtiness “against nothing”.
Tejuosho said Obasanjo was not only a former military Head of State and a two-term President of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007, but also a global statesman and a father of Yorubaland whose influence stretches across Africa — achievements that he said were far from “infantile”, as the monarch argued that such feats could not be denigrated by Fayose’s arrogance.
The statement reads in part, “Mr Fayose, your recent message to our Baba Obasanjo was not courage; it was simply reckless and unguarded noise. It is a confession of your own moral confusion. Like Baba rightly said at the event marking your 65th birthday, there is a total difference between being courageous and being foolhardy.
“That latest action of yours was the restless echo of a man who forgets that elders are the pillars of our civilisation. You dare speak to a general while standing on ground that his service, sweat, discipline and sacrifice helped secure.
“You throw stones at a colossus while standing barefoot on a hill he built. You spit towards the sky, forgetting that the heavens you insult today will send the rain back upon your own face tomorrow.
“Mr Former Governor, your mouth did not even tremble when you called the old man such names; I am even afraid to repeat those words of yours. You have not wounded Baba Obasanjo’s honour; you have only amplified your own irrelevance. Your words show not bravery, but a staggering poverty of wisdom.”
Continuing, the monarch said, “Let me remind you: Baba Obasanjo is not just a man. He is a chapter of our national story, a pride of the Yoruba race and a sentinel of the republic.
“You were only 16 when Baba became Head of State. You had not even tasted the soil of responsibility when Obasanjo was already shaping the destiny of nations — yet you now want to challenge the legacy of such a legend.
“Your political relevance is already flickering like a dying lantern, yet you choose to bark at a lion that the entire forest pauses to adore. There is nothing more tragic than a man trying to wrestle with history when history does not know his name.
“You once danced around in your youth with no understanding of statecraft; you were barely 43 when this old man gave you everything within his power to support your ambition, which made you governor in 2003. You now have the temerity to rebuke a man who carried Nigeria through storms you could never comprehend.”
The monarch said if Fayose felt Obasanjo was wrong, he should have returned to him privately — the same way he approached him to invite him — instead of sending such a “disgusting and insulting message to an elder statesman.”
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