Keyamo’s sour Abuja yams and oily hands

BY OMOLE IBUKUN

Yorubas will say “Ajè’gbodò ñ w’énikúnra”, meaning that the man eating a sour yam never wants to eat alone. That is the best way to place the recent controversy between Festus Keyamo and Nigeria’s popular rapper Eedris Abdulkareem. Keyamo responded to Eedris singing about him joining the cabal in his newly released Jagajaga reloaded, with screenshots of texts of Eedris asking Keyamo to give him a loan to treat his sick mother or link him up so that he can sell a song to their campaign back in 2018. In his response, he portrayed Eedris as an opportunist who only criticised a government because he could not get some money from them. Asides not posting his own sides of the text exchanges, Keyamo portrayed Eedris as an activist by day and hustler by night. The tweet has been pulled down by twitter for violating EedrisAb dulkareem’s privacy, but this article is not holding brief for Eedris or whitewashing the Jagajaga crooner.

When Eedris sang the first version of Jagajaga, he said; “If you see Keyamobia via, dem lock am for jail for Abuja”, and even though that song spoke about a literal jail that verse still rings true ’til date, just like every other part of that historic hit. This is because the only reason why a Minister who used to be an activist can go as low as releasing screenshots of past discussions on Twitter can only be that he feels like he has been jailed on the wrong side of the barricade. How did the same Keyamo who was popular for being a critical human rights activist become the Minister of state for labour and employment in a country where doctors, court workers, lecturers, etc are falling over each other to embark on strike over non payment of their entitlements and poor working conditions? How did the Human Rights lawyer who began his career as the rising star of GaniFawehinmi Chambers (same chambers that fought to widen Nigeria’s democratic political space) become the Minister in a government that jail or shoot protesters, and crush every political opposition including by deregistering radical political parties? How? How did that young Radical Lagos SAN end up jailed in Abuja figuratively this time around, behind the Minister’s desk?

It is obvious the appointment that Keyamo was given so that he could also eat is not as sweet as he imagined. It is obvious he wishes that Nigerians can see him as a good person who is on our side, but everything good about Keyamo ‘dem lock am for jail for Abuja’ – his appointment in this dictatorial regime has made it impossible for anyone to see anything good about him, and he is angry about that. The Abuja yam is not sweet at all. It is very sour in his mouth. Not long ago when someone came up with a grant scandal with Sowore, Keyamo jumped on the issue to condemn activists as hustlers. While the grant model of activism has its ideological limitations, Keyamo did not raise that. Instead he used the opportunity to announce that all activists are commercialising activism, just the same way he referred to Eedris as an ‘activist by day, hustler by night’. Keyamo is just an opportunist who wants all activists to be seen as eating out of his Abuja yam, even if it means just rubbing his oily hands on their clean cloths.

Despite the fact that Keyamo’s Abuja yam is sour (Abuja yam is generally popular for their sweetness though) he obviously did not give Eedris out of it, even though that was not what Eedris asked for. He asked for a loan for his sick mother back in 2018, or help in selling a song to the campaign. He offered to exchange value. He didn’t ask for free money. But just because Eedris got close enough, Keyamo is rubbing his oily hands on his clothes. Eedris was in an understandably desperate situation that should never be mocked by a Minister whose aged Principal flies to London for medical ‘second opinion’ every now and then. The same government that made healthcare a mess in Nigeria by underfunding the sector are mocking citizens desperate to resolve their healthcare problems no matter how expensive it gets. They impoverish us and turn around to weaponise that poverty as an instrument to use against activism and keep us down. Should any country be proud of the fact that a musician of Eedris’ amount of talent is so poor that he can’t afford dialysis for his sick mum?

Keyamo has accepted that he was a hungry activist who just wanted a seat at the table so the he could join in eating the seemingly-sweet Abuja yam, but he wants all other activists to be seen as the same now that the yam has gone sour. This is an attack on human rights activism and no one can do it better than a former hungry activist. Not all activists are doing it for a place at the table, even though some do. But if it comes to that (even though I do not wish things get there), I will choose to be on the side of a hungry commercial activist than to be on the side of a dictatorial regime impoverishing Nigerians and driving us towards Civil War. Just like Eedris stood with the then hungry activist Keyamo against the regime that jailed him back then.

We have not asked the big question though. Why do seemingly genuine activists turn around to start working with a system they once criticised? Is it that they are just immoral people? Or they don’t have any principles? Should activists start owning businesses and exploit workers so that they can beat poverty as it is done in a capitalist society?

I think the answer to that question is IDEOLOGY. Politics and political activism in Nigeria must move past personality cults to policy debates before we can experience progress or democracy in its realest sense. Nigerian politicians cross from one party to another because policy and ideology is not emphasised in most mainstream parties. Big personalities are always the points of emphasis. That’s why when you invite a Nigerian to a political party, the first thing they want to know is who are the owners of the party and whether they like their personalities. It’s valid in its own way because people are the best examples of their ideas, but we must move beyond that to understand the ideas of politicians and political parties. That’s when it will be hard for a political activist like Keyamo to not just cross the carpet, but also cross the barricade to the side of the oppressor. We need an ideology driven politics in Nigeria. As an activist with the left ideology of a progressive democratic socialism, I believe not just in the collective intelligence of the masses but also our collective conscience.

Anybody can betray the struggle because of individual Abuja yam, but if the struggle is to share the yam to everybody equally, the collective cannot betray the collective, as long as everyone is participating democratically. Finally, anybody can end up as a Keyamo and become a betrayer of the struggle they once fought, but everybody cannot become that if we are united together in struggle by our collective conscience. Let us get it clear, The sin is in one person eating the yam meant for all of us to share equally. There is no sin in all of us having equal access to the yam together. In fact, that is the goal. That is when the Abuja yam can be sweet, when it circulates to everyone in every part of the country.

Omole Ibukun writes from Abuja, Nigeria and can be contacted on 09060277591