Keyamo: A progressive activist turns apologist for conservative establishment

By ADEBAYO OBAJEMU

His name rings bell, and in the pantheon of progressive movement in the polity his place is assured, though, now with an asterisk, a sign of an astonishing metamorphosis in his life.

May be a firebrand, describing him that way, certainly will not be a misnomer, and his own attack on obscurantism and all the ills that plague our society has its foundation and roots in a shrine whose priesthood was for decades presided over by Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a foremost human rights activist and lawyer on the continent. The firebrand in question is Festus Keyamo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, the current Minister of State for Industry.

Then how did a protege of Gani whose law Chambers was the crucible where Keyamo raised the ante of his radicalism, sneakily turn out to be a thinker and voice of and for the establishment for which Gani and his ilk spent their careers fighting?

The answer may be, can be located in one of the preoccupation of philosophy, sociology and psychology for centuries, and for which they have found an answer: self interest.

Philosophers from Savonarola to Machiavelli to Thomas Hobbes and down to our age; have emphasized the centrality of narcissism in human action. The centrality of self interest may succinctly explain the exploration of new dynamic in Festus Keyamo, arguably, one of the fiery human rights activists and lawyers in Nigeria, and now a minister of State for Niger Delta initially before his alleged disagreement with the substantive minister, Godswill Akpabio, former governor of AkwaIbom State.

The reputation he now has as a turncoat is the tragic measure of a man caught between two systems of beliefs; one that pushes him towards immortality, the way Gani, Chima Ubani, Beko Ransome Kuti and Bala Usman among other fighters for our dignity had ascended into the realm of legends that live in our memory, our history, our struggles for a just society and equity.

It is this yearning for immortality that Keyamo may have abandoned for the other belief system- one that shuns history and its cantankerous narrative in favour of the Epicureanism of today, which is more appealing to our own Keyamo than the crushing rigour and torment of human rights struggle of which he was once a leading figure.
Of course, there is sweetness there, in being sunbathed in sensuous pleasure of office to the point of inebriation to the extent it of shrieking out profanity: “the #Endsars panel is illegal.”

All papers quoted Keyamo as casting aspersion at the panel that investigated the Lekki#Endsars massacre.

In denouncing his tribe- as the Lekki protesters were once his ideological family, we finally lost Keyamo to the tragic fortunes of the Nigerian conundrum;.ur loss is Buhari’s and the establishment’s gain.

By stigmatizing the #Endsars Panel, Keyamo is demanding for an undertaker for his once ideological soulmate, and fellow activist, Ebun Adegboruwa, a member of the Panel.

Whatever anyone thinks and feels the truth isKeyamo has paid his dues, and his eminence is not diminished by his latter day apostasy.

Until April,2018, Keyamo’s public persona was one that stayed through to the radical streak he imbibed as a law student at the Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma in the late 80’s graduating in the early 90’s.

In that year, the Buhari handlers plucked him out from the progressive camp in apparent attempt to depopulate the tribe of firebrands that often give the establishment sleepless nights.
Keyamo was appointed as the Director of Strategic Communications (Official Spokesperson) of the 2019 re-election bid of the President of Nigeria. He was appointed minister of state for Niger Delta ministry and later minister of state for Labour and employment. The position he presently occupies. He has since been a politician.

Keyamo had his primary education at Model Primary School and secondary education at Government College, Ughelli, where he obtained the West African School Certificate in 1986. He later proceeded to Ambrose Alli University at Ekpoma, in Edo State southern Nigeria where he received a Bachelor of Law degree in 1992 and was called to the Nigerian Bar on December 1993.

He began his legal career in 1993 at Gani Fawehinmi’s Chambers in Lagos State, southwestern Nigeria. After he spent two years at Gani Fawehinmi’s chambers, he left to establish Festus Keyamo Chambers.

He was counsel to the leader of the Niger-Delta Peoples’ Volunteer Force, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari in his trial for treasonable felony and lead counsel in the treason trial of Ralph Uwazuruike, the leader of the Movement For The Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). Keyamo was also a counsel in the murder case of Bola Ige.

In 2008, he took the Federal Government of Nigeria to court over illegal appointments of service chiefs.
In 2017, Stephanie Otobo, a Canadian-based singer and stripper, accused Apostle Suleman Johnson, through her lawyer Festus Keyamo, of failing to keep a marriage promise made to her after allegedly having several sexual relationships with her.

Festus was among the nominated ministers of the second administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Keyamo was named by the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC), Nigeria in July 2017 as one of the outstanding Nigerian lawyers to be awarded the rank of SAN. Festus is now in Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet. Keyamo and others named on the 2017 SAN-list were inaugurated into the elevated league of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) in September 2017.

In 2017, Keyamo was also awarded the Global Human Rights Award by the United States Global Leadership Council in Washington for his efforts over the years in respect of protection and promotion of human rights and campaigning for accountable governments in Nigeria.

Born 21 January 1970 his range is wide and rich: lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN, critic, columnist and human rights activist.