By Marvellous Nyang
Nigerians have put a comedian, Seyi Law, under fire for criticizing Laolu Akande, the host of “Inside Sources,” a popular Talk Show on Channels TV, over his call for bold leadership and the reform of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Akande in his latest programme on Friday, February 16, in his “My Take” segment, in a clarion call to government leaders, the president and governors to ward off corruption in the country’s public sector, called for a general reform while making a passionate appeal for the sanitisation of both the CBN and NNPC, which many well-meaning Nigerians had also spoken to in the past, but with no effect, saying the country needs courageous leaders to do the needful.
The former presidential spokesperson in his charge said, “Our leaders must be bold enough, honest and forthright to draw a line in the sand on the issue of corruption. It requires boldness. Corruption is corrosive. A former President said if we don’t kill it, it will kill us.”
Wondering, “How is it possible that more than half of the oil lifted in Nigeria for instance is being stolen and no one has been caught or punished in several years? Akande who also admitted that he served in the previous administration said, “The situation we are facing today is worrying and many of us still hope and pray that our leaders can summon the required courage to surmount the conditions and to deal with the contradictions, especially in agencies in CBN and NNPC, two of the most critical institutions that must be thoroughly reformed if our economy is to come out of what seems to be a doldrum.
But, responding to Akande’s “take” in his programme’s video published by Linda Ikeji on her Instagram page, Seyi Law commenting, wrote, “This is coming from a man who was an aide to the Vice President, Prof Laolu Akande for 8 years. Truly, hypocrisy is a virtue to some people in Nigeria.”
However, his position didn’t go down well with other Nigerian responders who took a swipe at him as himself a hypocrite, who is an agent of the current Tinubu-led administration.
A Nigerian who responded to Seyi Law’s comment said, “But you were an advocate of Tinubu so you have no right to criticize him,” while another calling his bluff told Seyi Law, “Keep quiet mudafvka. Asslicker isonu.”
A responder exonerating Laolu Akande from the governmental flaw irrespective of his serving under the past administration as a media aide said, “His boss didn’t even have a stand or a say in that government is it him who will talk?”
Similarly, another Nigerian wondered why telling the truth of a situation became hypocrisy. The person explaining the situation under which Akande found himself asked, “How is it hypocrisy?” saying, “He was a media aide to the VP,” wondering, “When did serving a government the reason to lose your voice for a journalist who has been on the job of speaking and writing on national issues since he 1999.”
“You are saying that someone who became a newspaper editor of a national newspaper in 1997 should lose his job and abandon his profession all because he served in the government for eight years out of 34 years post-qualification? C’mon Seyi Law, where is common sense in that?” the responder asked.
