By: Obafemi Oluwadare (PhD)
“You can fool some people sometimes, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.–Bob Marley
If by now anyone still believes that ex-Senator Babafemi Abduganiyy Ojudu the accidental senator who once represented Ekiti Central Senatorial District can repent from his lying and scamming ways, then such a person has yet to have any dealing with him, and it is advisable such a person avoid doing so, but if at all, should relate with serious caution, otherwise, such a person may regret doing so.
Ojudu’s second nature is lying and he is damned good at it. Lying comes too easy for him and he lies with no conscience or remorse. While some liars may simply lie because they want to be liked, or some others are driven by ego to lie, Ojudu does not just lie for those cheap reasons. He lies pathologically, he lies shamelessly and he lies narcissistically.
Two phrases best describe Ojudu: a confusionist and a political liability. Pity, Ojudu has actually shoehorned himself into a cramped corner in Ekiti politics with his words and deeds. He is the poster-boy for stinginess, elusiveness and political fraudster. It is worrisome that he has continued to parade himself as a trueborn of Ekiti, the land of honour and pride, and an APC member, yet he cannot see anything good in the state or any leader coming out of it.
Recently, Ojudu, who parades himself as the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, despite knowing next to nothing about the political mindset of the president or the happenings in the presidency, fielded an interview, which was published in The Punch newspaper of Sunday 11 October 2020. In his usual manner, he made Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, his whipping boy. Of course he didn’t say anything different from what he had always been saying, since he has this warped assumption that a lie repeatedly told may one day be taken for the truth.
In the said interview, Ojudu went on and on, ranting about the Ekiti of his choice, which he said had yet to be realized by anyone who had governed the state, past and present. He portrayed himself as the coming messiah, who the people of the State should be awaiting. That is the same Ojudu that had lampooned the people for disturbing him by making demands, warning them not to ever seek any favour from him again, since he was no longer in their representative in the Senate. The same Ojudu who took a road contract job from the state government, collected the money and flee without doing the job; the same Ojudu who collected substantial sum of money for constituency projects in his four years as as a senator and failed to do the project; the same Ojudu, who, as Special Adviser to the President, has not attracted any project to the state; the same Ojudu that could not influence the fixing of any federal road in his state; the same Ojudu that could not influence the appointment of anybody from the state at the federal level, despite serving as a Special Adviser for a second 4-year term after his senatorial experience.
Ojudu, in the said interview, talked about Ekiti project, the same project he has been pursuing since the days of Otunba Niyi Adebayo, when he set up the E11 Group. He later set up the Action Group, before gathering some people in the name of a political association to form Ekiti Rebirth Organisation (ERO), recently, he toyed with the Stakeholders Group. One feature runs through all the groups Ojudu had been floating, and that is to feather his personal nest. Once he uses the group to achieve an end, he would drop it and would let it fall on the heads of his undiscerning followers. One wonders what group he is floating this time and what end he is trying to actualize.
When asked in the interview why Ojudu was always part of every government in the state and would be the same person to pull such government down, his response was that he could not “keep silent in the face of injustice, oppression and looting of the people’s resources.” Seriously? So, the same Ojudu that got contracts from all the governors that ever governed the state till date, yet would hardly complete any project for which he got paid, is fighting on the side of the oppressed? The same Ojudu that abandoned the Ureje Dam Project, which was his Constituency project while in the 6th Senate is talking of injustice? The same Ojudu whose Group E11 managed the State-owned Fountain Hotel and never accounted for how the money was managed is talking of looting? If there is any injustice, oppression, or looting, Ojudu is certainly a culprit.
One maligning submission by Ojudu was that Fayemi was sent on assignment by “outsiders” to “divide our South-West caucus and bring our party on its knees.” This could not have been more stupidly made. Ojudu said he took this assumption from the interview granted by Fayemi and published in the Daily Trust that “there may be no APC after Buhari.” I doubt if Ojudu would believe himself saying such hogwash if he ever had the opportunity to read his Punch interview again. In other words, his boss, the President who equally made the same allusion that there may not be an APC after him, is equally guilty of the same offence as Fayemi and whatever language he Ojudu had used to describe Fayemi for making such situational statement also goes to his boss.
Ojudu also denied getting any support from Fayemi to become a Senator. Well, this should not come as a surprise, except Ojudu has repented from his lying ways. The same Ojudu, who went on to praise Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande in the interview for coming to his support when he was to be traded away had once told close associates that but for Fayemi, Tinubu would have traded him away. In his words, Tinubu never wanted him to be a Senator, having initially supported Dele Alake and later, when Alake stepped down, transferred the support to Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB). It was only when Fayemi had ensured that he, Ojudu, got the ticket that Tinubu then decided to support him at the general election, knowing he had no option than to do so. Perhaps one would need to wait for the memoir Ojudu is busy writing to be able to know the truth as to who actually gave him the Senate ticket between Fayemi and Tinubu.
Ojudu further argued that Fayemi had become a demi-god. In his words, Fayemi “is beyond engaging in dialogue with. You cannot see him or talk to him.” Ojudu should have been asked further if he had at any time sought an audience with Fayemi and how many times Fayemi had turned him down. Those who knew both Fayemi and Ojudu well would however attest to the fact that Ojudu was one of the closest (if not the closest) to Fayemi. Ojudu never needed any appointment or permission to see or call Fayemi at any time of the day. Ojudu should tell us if that has changed between them, when it changed and why it changed.
The most laughable suggestion by Ojudu in the interview is that Fayemi should be the one to carry Tinubu’s banner “If it’s true that Tinubu wants to run for President.” Isn’t it preposterous of Ojudu to have confirmed in this manner that his role as a Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters is a bland one? I bet, by the time Tinubu would be declaring such an ambition, if at all, Fayemi would be one of the first people to be told and that would be long before Ojudu ever hear about it. And when the decision on who does what would be taken, he, Ojudu, would not be at the gathering. He would only read or hear about it in the news like everyone else. So he should stop grandstanding that he has any national relevance either in the APC as a party or in the Presidency. He is nothing but a sheer seat warmer.
There is no doubt that Ojudu’s leopard cannot change its spot. For him, lie-telling is a serious business. He has scammed too many people in his life time that he no longer sees it as a big deal. He sees everyone he comes across as his potential mugun and would readily sell them dummies for as long as they cannot see through him. One wonders what he would be writing in his touted superfluous memoir, having told so many lies thus far.
Obafemi Oluwadare (Phd), Irele Ekiti.