Fayose, Fani Kayode and the effect of inadequate socialisation

Socialisation is a process through which individuals acquire the social virtues and decency necessary to enable them to interact peacefully with others. Going by this definition, we were all born socially unapt but through this gradual process we were comprehensively taught how to accept the rules and expectations of our societies, how to imbibe the spirit of accommodation and above all how to respect our elders. The importance of elders in every community in Nigeria whether Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa or Fulani is non-negotiable, they must be respected under all circumstances because the assumption is that they have more wisdom and are more equipped to provide the necessary leadership. Given the age of President Muhammadu Buhari and by virtue of his position as the President of Nigeria, he deserves to be respected by all Nigerians. He is absolutely qualified to be among the elders that must be accorded with respect not only in the North but in Nigeria as a whole. The President has been on medical vacation in the UK since May 7, so under normal circumstances all our prayers should be directed towards President Buhari. But regrettably, Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose and Femi Fani Kayode, a former minister, who should have known better have been busy spreading all sorts of rumours against the President, they have even gone to the extent of wishing the president dead. Any decent person cannot associate himself with what these two men are doing because their motives are diversionary, fictitious and ethnically biased. They are motivated by their hate for

President Buhari. It is because of their hatred for the president that they have failed to acknowledge a single achievement attained by the Buhari administration. Initially I was devastated by their reckless outbursts, but having systematically analysed their pattern of accusations and daily attacks on the personality of the president, I have come to the eventual conclusion that Governor Fayose and Fani Kayode were not lucky enough to have gone through the rigorous process of socialisation during their childhood. They have missed that very crucial process in their lives that is why they failed woefully to acquire the values and norms that would have enabled them to interact with other people of different tribe and religion. Their behavior is totally inhuman because the acquisition of sound human qualities and traits is only possible through the process of socialisation which they have missed. That is why they don’t respect President Buhari and elders like former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The country should ignore them. We should put our ethnic and religious differences aside and concentrate on building bridges of accommodation and national unity not barriers of hate and violence.

Bashir S. Yusuf, Gezawa, Kano State.