Femi Adesina, special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, has revealed why his principal forgave Femi Fani-Kayode, who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Buhari received the former aviation minister at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, last Thursday.
Fani-Kayode, who was a staunch critic of the APC and Buhari’s administration, had vowed never to return to the party which he described as “Almajiri Peoples Congress”.
He had said he would rather die than do so.
His return to the party and the manner he was received created displeasure among some APC members.
Adesina, while reacting to the ex-minister’s return to the party in his weekly article, said the President is large-hearted and the manner in which he received Fani-Kayode showed it.
“Between last week and now, vitriol poured by FFK on anybody with the slightest affinity to APC has been dug up serially. He has said things straight from the gutters, things that the natural man would call unforgivable and unpardonable”, he wrote.
“Against President Buhari, the first family, Yusuf Buhari whom he wished had died when the latter had an almost fatal bike accident, APC as a party, the government, leaders of the party, groups and individuals. Even this writer has suffered horrid descriptions from FFK in many write-ups.
“Yes, he even said he would rather die than return to APC, but last week, he returned—well and alive.
“Naturally, a lot of loyal APC members are hopping mad that FFK was readmitted into the party. And not only that, he got back at the highest level. Not at his ward in Ile-Ife, Osun State, but the triumphal entry was at the Presidential Villa, with President Buhari himself as the host”.
The presidential spokesman also said aside Fani-Kayode, Buhari has hosted and dined with some of the persons who publicly vilify him.
Adesina said while some people have formed the habit of lying that Buhari has an unforgiving spirit, the president has proved them wrong with his action.
“I have worked with the President for over six years. And I have seen amazing things in terms of accommodation and capacity to forgive,” he said.
“I have visited him at home many times in the evenings, only to find at dinner table with him people who had been abusing his forefathers on television earlier in the day. This President has a capacity to forgive, and forget. And make peace.”
