Fani-Kayode Tackles Obi Over Comment On  NADECO, Expresses Disappointed In Aregbesola, Momodu

By Ayodele Oni 

Femi Fani-Kayode has criticised Presidential Candidate of Labour Party, (LP), Peter Obi over his comments on the pro democracy group, National Democratic Coalition, (NADECO), a group that played a major role in fighting against military rule in Nigeria.

In a post on X, Fani-Kayode argued that NADECO members risked their lives during the 1990s to defend democracy after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, believed to have been won by late business mogul, MKO Abiola.

 According to him, many activists were jailed, forced into exile, or killed during the regimes of leaders like Sani Abacha.

He accused Obi of disrespecting these sacrifices and questioned his role during that period, suggesting he did not stand against military rule. 

“I recall that he worked assidiously for General Abacha whilst our NADECO leaders and footsoldiers resisted him and were being locked up, driven into exile, subjected to the most brutal form of oppression, persecution and torture, blown to pieces with bombs and slaughtered by soldiers in the streets.

“Worse still the unrecognised and defunct Association of Destructive C*nts (ADC)  of which he is a leader has a National Chairman by the name of Brigadier General David Mark (rtd) who, in 1993, said that if the winner of the June 12th 1993 election, Chief MKO Abiola, was sworn in as President he would shoot him in the head!

“It is because of people like Peter, David Mark and Abacha that the military Head of State at the time, General Ibrahim Babangida, was compelled to annul Abiola’s election after which the nation was thrown into chaos and turmoil with many innocent and defenceless Nigerians killed over the next 6 blood-soaked and terrifying years.

“Peter’s Obidient supporters were not born at the time and do not know the shameful role he played in that chapter of our history, but we will educate them.

“He was a quivering and chicken-hearted coward then and he remains one till today.

“He and the members of his deregistered and defunct party should be the last people to talk about fighting for democracy and accusing others of not being democrats and of being dictators.

“Most of them were part and parcel of the brutal military regimes that terrorised our people and, unlike others, he did not have the guts to resist tyranny and oppression at the time, but instead wholeheartedly espoused, embraced and supported it.”

He also flayed the African Democratic Congress (ADC), linking it to figures such as David Mark, whose past actions during the military era remain controversial.

Fani-Kayode further expressed disappointment that some former NADECO figures, including Dele Momodu and Rauf Aregbesola, are now politically aligned with individuals he believes were connected to past military governments.

While he acknowledged that Atiku Abubakar opposed Abacha, he maintained that Obi’s alleged past associations weaken his moral standing to speak on democracy.

Fani-Kayode maintained that the sacrifices made by NADECO members should not be ignored or rewritten, stressing that Nigeria’s democratic freedoms today were earned through years of struggle and suffering.

In his words, “Peter Obi’s attack on NADECO and his attempt to denigrate the leaders of that movement and its members, who single handedly fought military rule and made the ultimate sacrifice for democracy in our country is a crying shame and shall not go unanswered.”

For the records, Obi had vehemently distanced himself from either working for, or supported the Abacha Regime. Fani-Kayode was also in the PDP with David Mark and a number of ADC members, a crime he now accuses Mark and Aregbesola of commiting.