It was something of a spectacle when the personalities of Femi Fani-Kayode, FFK, and Dr Mike Ozekhome “clashed” at Enugu airport the other day. It was something to see. And no, they did not fight or exchange hot words. I imagine that they exchanged polite greetings inside the aircraft. This was what I noted on the same Abuja-to-Enugu Ibom Air Flight with the two lawyers, on Thursday, 27 April 2023.
The Ibom Air Flight QI0701 taking us to Enugu was on schedule. From what I could see of Ozekhome at the tarmac, he may have aged a bit because he now spots a head of grey. However, I could not detect much change from the young, dashing, up-and-coming lawyer that I met for the first time at a CLO meeting in Olisa Agbakoba’s Chambers in Apapa, Lagos. I was then a reporter and enthusiastic member of CLO, writing stories about the organisation that my editor, Amma Ogan, ordered. This particular meeting was in 2007, I believe.
Mike had just been released from a DSS detention. He was invited to regale us with the story of his run-in with the SSS, as it was then known. And he did a fantastic job of dramatizing his ordeal.
Government machinery is too powerful my brother, he repeated in an awed voice, again and again, as he told the story. This phrase stuck with me all through my career as a field reporter, up to when I was promoted a media editor and CEO.
I also noticed something else about Brother Mike who is now a swanky lawyer that the DSS will think hard before they touch. And it is this: he had neither lost the zest for life nor his perpetual good humour.
When we touched down at the Enugu airport, it became obvious that both lawyers were headed in different directions. FFK was apparently travelling to Abakaliki, ostensibly to see and congratulate Gov. Umahi on his new airport and possibly for other matters incidental. “The matters incidental” occured to me only after a conversation with an airport cab driver.
Ozekhome, on the other hand, came into Enugu to attend the second edition of Nzuko Umunna’s Handshake Across Nigeria. The Handshake event was chaired by the Tor Tiv and had in attendance traditional and social dignitaries including the Deji of Akure and the Obi of Onitsha.
Social media video clips show that he must have had a wonderful time in Enugu.
Anyway, back to the airport, both in Abuja and Enugu, one couldn’t help but notice the wide gap in public appreciation between the two. Ozekhome joined the passengers’ queue at takeoff, from where he joked and backslapped his way into the plane. FFK, on the other hand, waited until everyone was seated before he hurried in to take the front row right window seat. He hardly answered greetings.
When the plane touched down in Enugu, the usual passenger-waiting crowd outside the terminal building stared at FFK in stony silence as he emerged. Embarrassed, he quickly dashed into a waiting SUV and sped off. In contrast, the small crowd burst into wild applause on sighting Ozekhome. The man responded with his trademark broad smile that said it all – I am very warmly welcome here, thank God!
Without prompting, the driver of the airport cab that took me to town asked whether I saw what happened and what I thought about it. Without waiting for an answer, he gave me the context for his question. Acording to him, the airport crowd used to hail and mob FFK at the airport.
“Just last year o,” he said.
FFK, he continued, used to receive the same wild accolades they just transferred to Ozekhome, whenever he came to Enugu to “beg for money.“
“Beg for money!” I replied sharply and rebuked him for being uncharitable.
But he merely laughed.
“Everyone knew what he was coming to the Southeast governors to do. You no dey read papers or see the social media, Oga?” he asked.
I told him to be careful of the things he says about the scion of the Great Oxbridge-trained Kayodes.
“You can’t just believe everything you see in social media about anyone who is a news maker,” I said.
“Oga, forget that thing,” he said.
Being a perpetual political turncoat must have its awkward moments, I mused as I disembarked from his cab on reaching my destination.
I threw one last shot at him.
If Peter Obi were to win his case against Bola Tinubu at the Supreme Court, we should expect FFK to be cheered again at our airports for speaking the language of the masses, rather than those of oppressors.
To which he replied:
“That will never happen. He has lost our respect,”
Na wa.
When Ozekhome and FFK clashed
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