Gbajabiamila, catch Adeyemi if you can

Have you seen the movie entitled Catch Me if You Can? I urge you to please find it, watch it with someone – preferably a like mind, and digest it. You will see that it will live in your head like it does in mine. If it didn’t live rent-free in my head like some notorious childhood memories, Catch Me If You Can wouldn’t have popped up in mind as soon as Nigerians in their hundreds of thousands began to react to the messy controversy created by a man named Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew and the mouthful concoction they call the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) which he heads (or headed) as the director-general.

The messy PFIPC matter gained a very rapid ascendancy also because the name: Femi Gbajabiamila is right there in the heart of the ugly dispute. The matter promptly took over the media space during the week because Mr. Gbajabiamila is not just a politician of note, but a top government functionary and currently serves the nation as the Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria. Thus, he is a very influential personality in Nigeria and a front row member of the country’s power caucus. By his position, he is also a major pillar in the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government and an important figure in the corridors of power in the country. The name of Gbajabiamila is all over the mouth of now-discredited Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi. He has always mentioned Gbajabiamila’s name in his accounts on the PFIPC and has never failed to insist that his appointment was not just approved by the Chief of Staff to the President, but that he was also involved in some of the activities of the council.

Of course we have had strong denials of the persona of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi and whatever he claims to represent. From the usual government quarters, words have gone out that we should stop talking about the man like he is an important entity in the scheme of things. Mr. Gbajabiamila himself had not only disowned him, he had even reported the matter to the security agencies and also described the PFIPC as a completely fictitious body unknown to the government of Nigeria in which he serves. In addition to Gbajabiamila’s denial of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi and his PFIPC, the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the presidential spokesman, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, has also formally refuted the claims by Prince Adeyemi and designated him as a sophisticated con artist. Onanuga in a statement through which he exonerated Gbajabiamila and the Tinubu government, said Prince Adeyemi “is a clear case of con artist who appears to have built a web of false claims to deceive unsuspecting government officials and the public into playing by his scam book.”

Well, the matter is already in court. So, finally, we might get to see some action commence on it in the open court in a few weeks. They have fixed July 27 and Nigerians can’t wait. Like Prince Adeyemi said in an interview, he is ready to face the law, and he is ready to tell his story under oath, before a judge – to a court of competent jurisdiction. In other words, the current posture of Prince Adeyemi shows that since the PFIPC matter has gone the way it did, he is totally poised and ready to tell the world what they cooked which eventually got the house burnt.

The submission of Mr. Onanuga on the Adeyemi-Gbajabiamila face-off made the theme of Catch Me If You Can more vivid. The 2002 classic directed by the legendary man of classic flicks, Steven Spielberg – yes, the same Steven Spielberg of Apocalypse fame, has the eternal cat-and-mouse trappings. A hugely successful con artist, Frank Abagnale Junior, son of a retired, and equally hugely successful con artist, is everything but what he claims to be – a Pan Am pilot, a lawyer, a doctor. Forever on his trail to bring him to justice is Agent Carl Hanratty of the FBI. For a very long time, Agent Hanratty (played by Tom Hanks) trailed Frank Abagnale Jr (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) to arrest him, but the younger con man was always one step ahead of him. Eventually, after several falls and fails, including international manhunt, Hanratty succeeded in arresting his man. Abagnale Jr was convicted and jailed. It was victory for tenacity and the justice system of their country.

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There, I think, is where similarities end between the events that happened in the movie and the events unfolding before our very eyes, in and around the highest and most secure office in Nigeria. It is practically impossible to believe that the kind of things that happened with Adeyemi’s PFIPC would happen without government knowledge and approval. Even if what we are hearing is made into a movie, it will not sell because a good movie should, at the least, be credible or convincing. One interesting window of argument in the movie is about the book, Frank Abagnale Jr, on which the movie was based. Some journalists’ reports hold that the events in the semi-autobiography were not as dramatic as its main character described them. In other words, the journalists who investigated the claims of Abagnale Jr in his own book, are reporting that his claims are exaggerated. So, does it mean that Frank Abgnale Jr was a fraud in real life as he was in the movie of him?

What Nigerians see happening between Adeniyi Adeyemi and Femi Gbajabiamila is similar to the events in Catch Me If You Can only to the extent that there are fraudulent activities by one of the main characters. In the movie, the fraudulent one is Abagnale. He knew he was the bad guy because he chose to be, and deliberately designed that life and walked through it. There is no controversy and he knew he would have to always run faster than the law and constantly evade its arms. Agent Hanratty, on the other hand, knew what many didn’t know about Abagnale and worked so hard to bring him to book for the sake of their country.

However, in the Nigerian scenario, going by available reports and pondering on how deep Adeniyi Adeyemi went into the innermost chambers of power, there is no Agent Hanratty in this case. Both men are enmeshed in obvious falsehood. Both men cannot be telling the truth. Although one might be neater than the other, it is obvious that three people cannot possibly stand in twos. One has accused the other by quickly blowing the whistle and inviting the law-enforcement agencies. But unlike the Abagnale-Hanratty scenario, both men are pointing fingers. Adeniyi Adeyemi was pointedly called a con man by both Femi Gbajabiamila and Bayo Onanuga. He countered them by calling out Femi Gbajabiamila, and claiming that the Chief of Staff to the President is aware of how he became the DG of PFIPC, insinuating that what he was doing was legitimate government business. And when their handshake went beyond the elbow, Nigerians asked questions which were not answered by the intervention of Mr. Onanuga though a statement.

A lot of the activities of Adeniyi Adeyemi as PFIPC director-general were beyond just one man. Otherwise, it would be a great mystery beyond what Abagnale Jr achieved in his years as a fraudster – even in a movie! It would be like the mystery of the mammal sang about by that gifted Fuji music bard, Saheed Osupa. Osupa sang about the bat, saying when you open one up, you will find another one inside; and when you still open that other one, you will still find yet another one.  A case of “inside that your avian, another avian dey inside,” as sung by Shallipopi. Adeniyi Adeyemi would have been more mysterious than these.

This messy maze of complicity is not a straight line at all. When a fight breaks out among co-wives, their songs would transform into proverbial jibes. The PFIPC is not running a straight course and it is not a game that can be hunted by an individual like some people want us to believe. A man who bypassed layers and layers of security and tight processes to get to the presidential table will either be a much bigger Frank Abagnale Jr, or we are in a cinema watching a movie. Nigerians deserve to know if Abagnale has reincarnated here or let there be a methodical hunt of the PFIPC that is running awkwardly.