The Presidency has explained reasons behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s forgiving his former arch critic and former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode.
Presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina said in an article that despite all that Fani-Kayode had said against Buhari and his family, the president was able to display an attribute of God, which is to forgive and show mercy.
“This president has a capacity to forgive, and forget. And make peace. That was what he displayed in the case of FFK. Nothing short of divine attribute, which me and you should covet and seek to approximate,” the presidential spokesperson said.
The defection of FFK to the ruling APC and his red carpet reception by Buhari at the Presidential Villa elicited criticisms from members of the ruling party.
Adesina said FFK “has said things straight from the gutters, things that the natural man would call unforgivable and unpardonable.”
“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.
“By agreeing to the readmission of FFK to APC as the leader of the party, and hosting him at the Villa, President Buhari displayed amazing capacity to forgive, to show mercy, and let bygones be bygones. How many of us can do that? Not many.
“We would have told FFK to go to hell, and stay there. But Buhari didn’t. He displayed an attribute of God: forgiveness.”
Adesina said the FFK saga had exposed “one of the lies that had been serially told against the president was his alleged unforgiving spirit.”
He said, instead, Buhari had hosted and dined with people who condemned and insulted him.
He said: “I have worked with the president for over six years. And I have seen amazing things in terms of accommodation and capacity to forgive. I have visited him at home many times in the evenings, only to find at the dinner table with him people who had been abusing his forefathers on television earlier in the day.”
