It is often said in Yorùbá parlance that when a house or family enjoys relative peace and equanimity, it is because the bastard who dwells in such a family has not come of age. Otherwise, a family where such a person is bred is bound to witness, at intervals, clatter, woolly and needless cacophony. This scenario is not too different from the case of these deceitful and unconscionable souls who are better described as ‘Coalition Of Omo-Àlè Descendants’.
The faceless group under the control of one Lekan Ekundayo is nothing but a group of ethnic jingoists, tribal bigots, agent provocateurs and no less black sheep of the Yorùbá extraction.
Anyone can be irritated, frustrated or have misgiving about a situation, condition or a happenstance. However, as individuals, one must be able to draw lines between what is good and what is not. How a group of scoundrels, for whatever reason, their misgivings or incertitude are, would resort into cheap misplaced blackmail, unsubstantiated and spurious claims to go on a campaign of calumny against some persons and individuals who have hitherto displayed excessive patriotism towards their fatherland and have proven time and time again that they are worthy plenipotentiaries of their country – Nigeria beats the imagination of every discerning mind.
To further prove the height of his imbecilic medulla and the nadir of his intellectual prowess, Lekan Ekundayo would go ahead to drag an agency which has given more to Nigeria and Nigerians in just over a year of its establishment – the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) in his journey of opprobrium and infamy. Anyone can be angry as stated earlier, however, Lekan alongside his reprobates should not, while dilating his tirade, have dragged NiDCOM to his mudslinging. He should have been more specific by making direct allegations against those whom he thinks he had an axe to grind. His futile attempt with his group of scallywags at blackmailing the NiDCOM has fallen flat on its face.
*THE UNHINGED CALL
In its lengthy jabberwocky called ‘Press Release’, the group which displayed nothing but everything antithetical to the values and virtues of ‘Omoluabi’ that the Yorùbá nation is noted for could only be seen trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. One of such nonsense was its attempt at giving hate-promotion colouration to NiDCOM as an agency of the Federal Government. Or how could persons with the right frame of mind have opined that “We are also alarmed by the official consent given to these hate campaigns by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NiDCOM, which is like giving an official endorsement to negative publicity about Nigeria.” From the quote above, the questions that come to the mind which demand answers from these rapscallions include:
– What hate campaigns were launched against the Nigerian nation (evidence of such campaigns either in form of print, social or electronic media)?
– Who are those individuals involved in these hate campaigns against their fatherland (names of individuals very germane)?
– If any (of such) hate campaigns exist, how and where did NiDCOM as an agent of the Federal Government grant such official consent?
– Lekan and his focus-less group further opined that going by the texts and literature coming out from the ‘hate campaigners’, one would assume that there is absolutely nothing good about the country, Nigeria. Ordinarily, somebody or a group of persons who wants to be taken seriously should not have spoken in ambiguity, especially when such speech or statement is meant to be a ‘Press Conference’. The group should have been more explicit in its allegations. Clarity is of the essence but because Lekan and his useless group just wanted to be heard, it does not matter whether what was put together as a press conference was just what Yorùbás would call ‘mún atamó mó àtamò’.
*COD: ON A HIGHWAY TO NOWHERE
The Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants, as it described itself is just a group of frustrated, no-focus, directionless handfuls and a noisemaking harem that the public is enjoined to discard like a piece of trash. If a group is even ignorant of what an agency of the Federal Government is established to do, how do you take such individuals very seriously? Does Lekan and his co-wayfarers think that NiDCOM as a Federal establishment is the same as ‘Egbé Omo-Ìlú’? This is because many, if not all that he mentioned in his gibberish called press release are mere beer parlour gossips. Or what evidence did he adduce to pontificate that the NiDCOM has become the refinery for the processing of crude, scathing critics and all forms of negativism against Nigeria?
Or could Lekan and his co-travellers be acting for a paymaster? It is overt his spurious allegations may not be about the unsubstantiated ‘hate campaigns’ as he claimed after all, but targeted at an (or some) individuals at the helm of affairs at the NiDCOM. For Lekan and his ilk, it is fundamentally germane that the mandate of NiDCOM is spelt out at this juncture once again so that they can be schooled since the group has shown one can actually be educated and still be stupid at the same time. After all, education does not translate into wisdom.
*WHAT NIDCOM IS NOT
Mr Lekan Ekundayo should get it into his skull that the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NiDCOM is not established to promote a section of the country, rather, an agency established by the federal government to galvanize its nationals outside the country for national growth and development. Coming from a platform of ethnic idiosyncrasy has clearly shown he and his other doofuses are on a mission to an end which is no end in its true sense.
*WHAT DOES NIDCOM DO?
For the avoidance of doubt, it is fundamentally germane that Nigerians know and acquaint themselves with the authentic information, not the bogus or ersatz impression Lekan Ekundayo and his group created with their supposed press release. We owe posterity this, hence, this rejoinder is deemed absolutely necessary.
*WHAT THE NIDCOM ACT STATES
The Act which established the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) states in:
Part II – Of the Act also gives the Commission the following powers:
(i) to coordinate and harmonise all Continental Nigerians in Diaspora Organizations
(ii) reach out to Nigerian communities abroad through their various groups, organizations and professional bodies et al.
From the above, it is clear that NiDCOM is not established to monitor or censor what individuals or groups say or do. Rather, the Act was enacted by the National Assembly of the FRN with the mandate to engage Nigerians in Diaspora in the policies, projects and participation in the development of Nigeria and for the purpose of utilizing the human capital and material resources of Nigerians in Diaspora towards the overall socio-economic, cultural and political development of Nigeria. Further functions include but not limited to:
➡️ Mobilize and execute programmes that will complement and advise the Federal Government on major areas of accelerated development.
➡️ Articulate its mandate and that of the Government properly and widely.
➡️ Reach out to Nigerian communities abroad through their various groups, organization and professional bodies among other functions.
It is shocking or rather bewildering that of all the sterling efforts the agency, NiDCOM, has put into action with visible positive results in just over a year of its establishment and with accolades pouring in torrents for the leadership from even non-Nigerians across the globe, one ignoramus will gather other muppets to call on the Federal Government to scrap the agency, NiDCOM. This is the height of idiocy! They must have woken up from the wrong side of their beds the day they contemplated such asinine agenda. Or it is that they all took fermented ‘burukutu’ (a typical alcoholic Yorùbá drink) in the early hours of the day it (the group) granted the press release?
_*WHAT COD MUST KNOW*_
Funnily, these nitwits forget that Nigerians are very intelligent people and are not stupid to swallow their bunkum under whatever disguise. Lekan claimed this set of people who now wallow in hate campaigns against a country that made them have discouraged many investors from coming to invest in Nigeria. That their hate campaigns have encouraged corruption in the public sector, further propelled enemies of the Nigerian state like the Boko Haram buzzards, armed bandits and other economic saboteurs to continue to wreak havoc on the nation’s economic development.
Sadly, as very weighty and tectonic as these allegations are, these agents of discord and balkanization did not provide one single evidence to back up its contrived claims either by naming who’s responsible for what or what they actually did. One can only consider these wild claims as mere conjectures and moonlight tales on steroids.
_*NIDCOM TILL DATE*_
Aside from its primary mandate of galvanizing Nigerians in Diaspora for national development, NiDCOM has had several meetings with individuals and groups tailored around bringing development to the country. If in the jaundiced and warped thinking of Mr. ‘Lokonso’ and his group of Omo-Àlè descendants, he had people he knew built hotels in their home towns to ‘camp’ young girls (according to his nonsense called press release), he should not take every other person like people of his kind. Let him show the world what development he and/or any of his dunderheads have brought to their home country.
NiDCOM has not relented in its efforts at putting the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians in Diaspora at the forefront of pursuing its mandate. Nigerians and indeed the world saw what the agency has been doing in the several cases of Nigerians in other countries of the world facing one problem or the other – either drug-related cases or human trafficking.
Juxtaposing Ekundayo’s claim with his claim on the hate campaign, only Independent People of Biafra, IPOB, a secessionist and proscribed group in Nigeria with inconsequential membership in the Diaspora berates the government but most Nigerians in the Diaspora are very patriotic and support their home country. This is evident from the numerous recent zoom meetings by many known groups including NIDCOM and UK Video conferences where Nigerians in the Diaspora join all over the globe to proffer solutions and engage positively with government officials.
“THE OMO-ÀLÈS HAVE GROWN UP
Lekan Ekundayo’s case is akin to the bastard that has now grown up in the family with rancorous exuberance. The earlier his insanity is tamed, the better for everyone’s peace in the family. For Nigerians to take Lekan very serious, let him mention the names of those involved in the many shenanigans he listed in his press release. Or is he afraid of litigations that are likely to follow such action especially in the face of no evidence to back up his claims? Wisdom, they say is profitable. But does he really possess one? It is very much doubtful.
We call on patriotic Nigerians to disregard these attention-seeking OMO-ÀLÈS and aimless individuals. They are like leprosy which should be surgically removed with no known address in Ọ̀ṣun and Lagos States.
Tí ilé bá ṣì ń tòrò, àwọn ọmọ àlè ibẹ̀ ni kò ì d’àgbà. Nigerians are not fools. These idiotic elements should get busy with something meaningful.
Dr. Bamidele Adamolekun, MD, MPH
NDWB, Washington, D.C.
