Deacon Femi Adesina, A Shameless Sanballat

By Bayo Oluwasanmi

Let me start by expressing my deep personal appreciation to all friends of goodwill who came to my defense since Deacon Femi Adesina published his diatribe on me on his Facebook page “Insight Aso Rock Shit”.

When Adesina was at Sun Newspaper, I expressed interest to serve as a columnist with the paper. When he became the spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari, while vacationing in Nigeria, I met with Adesina in Abuja. I made my desire known to serve in Buhari’s administration. I neither begged nor prostrated to Adesina. It is childishly foolish for anyone to say because I didn’t get a position in Buhari’s administration that’s why I criticise their failed god from Fulani Emirate. I will criticise Buhari today, tomorrow, and for ever as long as he runs a tyrannical regime of crooks.

It’s no crime to approach someone with close ties to government or organisation to recommend a qualified person for a position in the same organisation. This is the usual practice all over the world. Indeed, Adesina at one time or another has gotten a job through connection. I didn’t commit any crime by asking Adesina for a job. I didn’t beg him for money. I didn’t solicit for government contract. I believe I could make a difference if I was given the opportunity to serve my country. Every qualified Nigerian has the right to serve in government.

I will not attack the personality of Adesina. Rather, I will say a word or two about his pathological lies in defending the tyranny and atrocities of a despotic President, Muhammadu Buhari. Adesina is a deacon of the FourSquare Church. But he’s not endowed with the courage, boldness, honesty, and fortitude to speak the truth like deacons of the early church in the Bible. He studied the Bible without spiritual insight. He interprets the Bible in accordance with his selfish and egotistical desires. He’s blinded to his own weaknesses of character. As Buhari’s propagandist, he’s a spiritual host of fabrication.

As a professional liar for Buhari, he has demonstrated that though he’s educated in mind but not in morals. To be sure, Adesina is a menace to our democracy. Adesina always give needless pains to sensitive national issues. When Rev. Lawan Andimi, was beheaded by Boko Haram savages, Adesina justified the murder by dismissing the gruesome murder: “There were a times bombs used to go off in this country like firecrackers, and deaths were in many scores… So let the Church be fully involved in supplication… rather than playing subtle politics and unwittingly generating hate in the land.”

Adesina goes round and round like wheels spinning in the mud in an attempt to burnish Buhari’s tattered image. Adesina provokes a moral philosophical question: Why do good people lie? There are many reasons why decent human beings lie. But for deacon Adesina, his eyes are bigger than his stomach. When Buhari was on sick bed in UK hospital, Adesina lied to Nigerians saying “The President is not ill. The President is fine. The President is hale.”

Lamenting about the porous security in the land, Buhari confessed that he was unaware of what goes on in the North-West and other parts of the country. Here comes Adesina the interpreter of Buhari’s maladies: “The President is fully aware and in charge of the situation.” When confronted during a TV interview to clarify the source of funding for the so called Tradermoni, Adesina ridiculed Nigerians: “I wonder a times when Nigerians decide to have selective amnesia. But Nigerians they first hear go, they don’t hear come.”

His bombastic assertions were as offensive as they were nonsensical. Adesina has proven he is a dangerous political clown. His insidious brand of image making from his comfortable and privileged position in Aso Rock blinded him to see the uncomfortable position of disenfranchised and impoverished Nigerians. He spreads egregious lies. His standard attitude as Buhari’s publicist and propagandist is one of hardened ignorance, foolishness, and cowardice. When the Northern Elders Forum led by Prof Ango Abdullahi criticized Buhari for his tyrannical and clueless government, Adesina chastised the group and lampooned Abdullahi calling him “a general without troops.”

He sticks his neck out for the reputation laundering of despotic Buhari. He breaks all boundaries of custom and traditional morality when lying on behalf of Buhari. He dismisses the opinions of well-meaning Nigerians on how Nigeria is governed by Buhari. On the controversial RUGA issue, Adesina sided with the Fulanis. Listen to deacon Adesina: “It would be better for those that were oppose to cattle ranching to provide lands than to die in the herdsmen’s attacks. What would the land be used for if those who own it are dead at the end of the day?” It’s surprising therefore that a deacon would sell his soul to the devil. Adesina is a jaded, dirty-minded, foul-mouthed, over-bloated proud liar and fabricator. Adesina is the poison ivy of Buhari’s administration.

Deacon Adesina is a shameless Sanballat filled with the spirit of the Biblical Sanballat. It is the spirit that gets him angry when people genuinely criticize his Daura idol. It is the spirit that mocks Nigerians who desire to hold Buhari accountable. Adesina the Sanballat, is an enemy of reformation. He brings strong opposition to critical voices that advocate for a new Nigeria. As a Sanballat, Adesina is a critical persecutor who brings false accusations against progressive Nigerians. The only refreshing aspect of Buhari’s presidency is the frankness of its dishonesty. Adesina’s predecessors at least pretended to care about the truth. But, Adesina doesn’t. Buhari, Adesina’s boss, doesn’t care about the truth either. Buhari and Adesina are a match made in heaven (or perhaps somewhere else).

Adesina has denied his Christianity by his foolish talk, untruthful and unkind words. When Nigerians demanded that Buhari should address the nation on COVID-19 like other presidents of civilized nations had done, Adesina the arrogant liar shot back: “Briefing Nigerians is not Buhari’s style.” A self-possessed propagandist, too often Adesina talks down on Nigerians. He describes Buhari’s critics as “naysayers,” “enemies,” “wailing wailers.”

It’s about time Adesina and his Aso Rock coterie of liars realized that Nigerians have the right to demand that Buhari be a bold and imaginative chief executive, a visionary leader who projects a new view of government’s role on behalf of poverty ridden citizens.

Like Alexander the coppersmith, President Buhari and Deacon Adesina have done great harm (and they still do) to our nation. The Lord will repay them according to their deeds.