The former Minister of Aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has responded to the scathing criticisms he has received after verbally assaulting a journalist yesterday.
The incident which happened on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, was captured in a viral video and shows Fani-Kayode unloading a barrage of insults on the newsman.
Visibly angry, the former minister was reacting to question from the reporter who wanted to know who was “bankrolling” Fani-Kayode’s tour of projects in Cross Rivers and other states in the South-South.
Fani-Kayode had said:
“I could see from your face before you got here, how stupid you are. Don’t ever talk to me like that. Don’t judge me by your own standards.
I have been in politics since 1990. I am not one of those politicians that you think will just come…. I was taken, I have been locked up how many times by this government. I have been prosecuted, unlike most of these politicians you follow for brown envelopes!
Don’t ever judge me by that standard. I spend, I don’t take and I am not a poor man, I have never been and will never be.”
Nigerians have slammed the politician for his use of harsh words over what many say was an overreaction on his part.
In his defense, Fani-Kayode took to his Twitter account to address the ensuing backlash, saying he has no apology to offer for the incident.
He says he has accepted the reporter’s apologies and has moved on, adding that it wasn’t a question but an “assertion” sponsored and engineered by his political enemies.
Speaking further, he stated that the question was a “gratuitous insult” and that he would not accept that from any man born of a woman.
See his post below:
During my tour of the South and after a long and successful press conference in Calabar, Cross Rivers state, a journalist put up his hand for the last question and said,
"Well we do not know who is bankrolling you".
This is not a question but an assertion and an insult…1/4 pic.twitter.com/uWImIknjN3
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) August 25, 2020
…And if this insulting ASSERTION were made before Trump or OBJ I know how they would have reacted. Above is my response & I have no apology to offer for it. The young man apologised to me during the press conference & sent his apologies to me after the conference.. 2/4
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) August 25, 2020
..I have accepted his apologies & moved on. I have always had respect for journalists & always will. Those of them that know me or worked with or for me over the last 30 years can attest to that. However there is a distinction between asking a question & offering an insult.3/4
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) August 25, 2020
…This is all the more so when it is clear that the assertion was sponsored and engineered by my political enemies who wanted to use the young man to insult and embarrass me and question my integrity. Well they got more than they bargained for. 4/5
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) August 25, 2020
…I repeat this was not a question but an assertion and an gratutious insult and I will not accept that from any man born of woman. Thank you.
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) August 25, 2020
ADDENDUM:
Permit me to add the following. I have taken note of the report by Daily Trust on the incident. The content is false. I didn't send any of my security men to threaten their reporter. I only reprimanded him for a premeditated plan to embarrass me & he apologised..1/3
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) August 25, 2020
…thereafter. That was all.
This is not a battle between me and the esteemed Nigerian journalists who respect the ethics of the noble profession. I have always been and will always be a friend to journalists and a champion of freedom of speech. What I will not accept are.. 2/3
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) August 25, 2020
…and established who was behind this whole incident and attempt to embarrass me, who paid for it and how much they paid before going to press. Nevertheless I still hold you in high esteem.
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) August 25, 2020
