"I owe no one apology for paying tribute to Abba Kyari "– Fani-Kayode

Fani-Kayode had eulogised Kyari for being his close friend for 40 years. 

Critic, Femi Fani-Kayode has lashed out at those criticising him for paying glowing tribute to late former Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, saying he owed no one apology for doing that.

But he received bashing from some Nigerians for eulogising a man many dubbed as wicked and cruel.

In his reaction, Fani-Kayode said those that doubted his commitment to the struggle for a true Nigeria and to the resistance simply because of his tribute to an old friend of 40 years who passed on were entitled to their opinion and were free to stop reading his contributions and commentaries.

“The last thing I need is validation from any man. Why would I crave for that when I have the love of God?

“Regardless of their disposition towards me I will continue to hold on to my views and express them. I owe myself, my God and my nation that much if nothing else,” he said.

He said his opposition to the Muhammadu Buhari Government for the last five years had been as constant as the northern star and that it remained as strong today as it ever was.

“I warned Nigerians what would happen if he came to power in 2015 and I was proved right. I warned them again in 2019 and again I was proved right.

“I have spoken and written more than anyone else in this country over the last 5 years about the atrocities of the Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram and the tyranny, wickedness, evil, corruption and incompetence of the Buhari regime.

“I have also suffered more, lost more, been humiliated more, been persecuted more, been incarcerated more and been insulted more than most people in the country due to my unrelenting opposition to them.

“They have literally taken everything from me and it is only by the grace of God that I am still alive and that I have not been killed. This is because my opposition is not just to Buhari but to the dark and sinister forces that he represents and what he stands for which is beyond the comprehension of the overwhelming majority of the Nigerian people,” he said.

According to him, he had risked all and had exposed and done more damage to those forces than anyone else in this country in the last few years by their own admission.

“I have also spoken up for the weak, the poor, the oppressed, the deprived, the voiceless and the persecuted across ethnic, religious and party lines. And I have done all this right under the noses of those in power and not from distant shores or foreign lands.

“That does not however mean that I have lost my humanity. That does not mean that I will relish in anyone’s death. That does not mean that I will dance on the grave of others because death comes to us all and doing so diminishes us as human beings and makes us little better than beasts,” he stated.