It's my birthday today - 16.06.16. And I have an INTERESTING STORY & a BEAUTIFUL TESTIMONY to mark this day... LEKAN FAT...
It's my birthday today - 16.06.16. And I have an INTERESTING STORY & a BEAUTIFUL TESTIMONY to mark this day...
It's my birthday today - 16.06.16. And I have an INTERESTING STORY and a BEAUTIFUL TESTIMONY to mark this day. Please take your time to read, you will surely enjoy it.
The Champ!
Like most people, I welcomed the year 2016 with a huge sense of optimism and in high spirits hoping that the New Year would be better than the previous one. Of course, I never ruled out the occasional adversity that usually happens. But then, I didn't envision it would come so early in the New Year. Actually, I personally didn't give thought to anything other than a good start in 2016. With the FIRST birthday of my first child, my lovely daughter, coming up on the 11th February 2016, what took the better part of my mind as we
My Super Girl!
stepped into January of 2016 was the arrangement for the birthday celebrations. That was until I received a call that nearly scuttled my plans at the start of the New Year, and smear the good name that I had built for myself all along. It was on Wednesday January 6th 2016. SOWORE OMOYELE, PUBLISHER OF SAHARAREPORTERS was the caller. Of course I've got Sowore's phone number and he also has my number. In fact Sowore and I have known each other for almost 20 years, yes 20 good years! He is a SENIOR FRIEND & BROTHER.
And we've been relating as friends and brothers ever since despite the geographical distance between us - He in America, I in the UK. I will give little details of this relationship in the course of this story. But that evening and that call was different.
The way Sowore started this phone conversation with me on that fateful day clearly indicated a total absence of fraternity or brotherhood between us. But I wasn't perturbed. "Hey Lakeside, how you dey?", before I could return his greetings, he interjected, "you know Lakeside, I've been watching your closeness with people in the Nigerian government since..." At this point I tried to inquire from Sowore what was amiss but he wouldn't let me finish. He interrupted again, "Listen, I heard from my reliable source in the EFCC that your company Leeman Communications received about N500 million from a government agency and apparently this company was used by FFK. So you have to open up to me on this matter. So I can be able to help you. Otherwise you will see your name out there and they will come for you either in London or wherever you may be". At that moment I knew Sowore was not only running out of logic but also embarking on an irresponsible journalistic voyage and I wouldn't allow him bring that dirt to my doorstep.
Always on my professional lane...
For goodness sake, I'm a graduate of Mass Communication from UNILAG with a Master's degree in Diplomatic Studies from the University of Westminster, London. So I wouldn’t let anyone desecrate the tenets of these noble professions especially when I am personally involved. Hence I simply told him, "Show (as called by close friends), you listen. Firstly, I don't need your HELP because I never did any wrong. Actually, I've done an excellent job for the NSA and that was in 2014, if that's the agency you are talking about. I am ready to defend my work at anytime and any day I am called upon. But as you are keen to get the details of the work I did, I will oblige you as a brother. So I will call you back for more talks. But I must state that you shouldn’t engage me in this manner when I call back. And you really need to know that I had to excuse myself from the informal meeting I was having when your call came in, because it's been long since we last spoke, to tell you that I was in a meeting and that we could speak later". Before ending the call, Sowore demanded that I should call back soon after my meeting, that I shouldn't give him reasons to doubt my promise and that he shouldn’t be compelled to call me back. I smiled at Sowore’s shameful pomposity as we ended the call. The fact is Sowore got his over-bloated ego badly bruised by my clear and bold response to him on this evidently malicious inquiry.
He was actually expecting me to be panicky and spewing like a troubled and hapless parrot because he had become such a big deal (as he said to me later) and I should fret like those he usually called. Obviously, Sowore's newly acquired menacing media status has made him FORGET WHERE WE WERE BOTH COMING FROM AND OUR SHARED PRIVATE EXPERIENCES from years back. And he has also totally lost any meaning to how I particularly ASSISTED him so HONESTLY and DILIGENTLY in several LIFE-TRANSFORMING ways in our growing up days. And later in the early days of his Sahara platform. For those who may not know. I didn't know Sowore from UNILAG. He had left the University years before I got admission into UNILAG. Our friendship started off in Ilupeju in Lagos. He was one of the UNILAG guys in the area like Messrs Shina Olawoyin, Gbenga Elegbede to name a few who myself and other folks in the neighbourhood were tapping nuggets about campus life and particularly life in UNILAG from before our time. So before gaining admission into UNILAG, I was already ASSISTING Sowore in many of his endeavours and several means of survival. There are lots to say about the areas of my support
When SOWORE was BEGGING me for assistance in the early years of his SAHARA in 2007
for him and our private and cherished encounters back then but I will limit it to just a couple of events. When Sowore left Nigeria for the US in 1999, I became one of the very few people he kept close contact with in Nigeria. In fact I can boldly say I was the one who did most of the critical and life-changing assignments for him in Nigeria then. On Sowore’s instructions from the US, I went to the late Pa Peter Obe (the legendary photographer) to get pictures of Sowore's days of activism to be sent to him in America for a VERY VALUABLE purpose, which I KNEW! I was also at the Senate Building of UNILAG many times for Sowore to facilitate his academic transcript to be used for his Master's degree in the US. This support also included some little stuff like having me sew African clothes for him and I had to chase Hafsat Abiola (whenever she visited Nigeria at the time) to deliver the clothing to her for onward transmission to Sowore when she returned to US. I must also not forget to say that Sowore equally showed appreciation for my support at that time by getting a contact he had made in America, Ms Malika Sanders of the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement in Alabama, US to procure a full return ticket for me to attend a UN's Youth Conference in the Netherlands in 2001! Of course, I was very grateful for such a kind gesture of his. Going back to the main story. Surprisingly, about 15 minutes after the conversation with Sowore, a strange number with US country code rang on my phone. I picked the call, and it was a male voice (I suspected a white guy) with strong American accent on the line. The guy started by confirming if he was talking to Mr. Lekan Fatodu in which I responded in the affirmative. So he started, " I'm calling from Saharareporters and we have heard this and that about your company (the same story Sowore had told me on the phone some 15 minutes earlier) and the guy took the well orchestrated blackmail, threats and intimidation a top notch, "and you need to cooperate
Sowore asking for another ASSISTANCE (amongst several emails & calls for assistance over the years) from me in 2008
with us (Saharareporters) now otherwise we will go ahead with our story on you and you know the impact this will have on your public image", he said. Goodness! I got really irritated by this fellow’s bunch of garbage. So I yelled at the guy and called his bluff to go ahead with whatever they've got to say about me.
Predictably, I had no doubt my reaction would get Sowore really embarrassed whenever the guy reported his unexpected encounter with me to him (Sowore). But I wouldn’t be bothered. After all I’ve picked from Sowore, in those early years, about different ways of FIGHTING INJUSTICE and illegality wherever, whenever and against WHOEVER; and his prescriptions included some STREET-based reactions anyways. Hence immediately after the guy’s call, I sent a text message to Sowore saying that it's INAPPROPRIATE (my exact word to him) for him to send a stranger to call me after I'd promised to call him (Sowore) back after my meeting. But Sowore’s reply to my text left so much to be desired. "Oh ok. I think he got the info separately" (By the way I still have the texts on my phone and the facts of all my claims in this story) I knew I had no issue with the Nigerian government. I delivered a very professional and excellent assignment for the government in 2014. I had evidence and reports of all I did including the budget for the work. The new government itself had expressed its intention to VERIFY contracts under the previous administration. And I knew they would call on companies, so there wasn't any need to entertain Sowore’s inaccurate findings and recklessness especially with the manner he started off with his enquiries from me.
So I didn’t bother to call Sowore back on that evening of 6th January after my meeting. Expectedly, I woke up the following day Thursday 7th January to intense pressure from him. He rang me repeatedly, and also sent text messages. I ignored and decided to call him back at my convenience. And when I did, I told him again that I was ready to face the authorities whenever my company was called. But it was important to correct his erroneous findings from his so-called EFCC source. I told Sowore clearly that my company wrote a proposal of N37.8 million for a project in the NSA and that we were given N12 million as the initial payment. And that we had since painstakingly delivered on the job even beyond the payment given and forwarded the report of the work to the NSA in 2014. For some obviously cruel reasons Sowore didn’t believe me. He asked about FFK, and I told him there was nothing between this man and I as regards the ill request and wicked assumptions. I shared facts with Sowore to validate my claims (I’m sure Sowore will still have them on his device too). And I reiterated that I was ready to defend the integrity of Leeman Communications at anytime. The following day, Friday 8th January, Sowore showed up on my phone again but I missed his call. I tried to call him back
L-R: Seun Anikulapo-Kuti, Sowore and Lekan Fatodu just TWO years ago (2014)
but he couldn’t be reached so I sent him a text message. He responded by saying: “Hope you saw the newspapers today asking you to show up at the NSA office on January 20. “Which newspaper please? So I can ask someone to get it for me now. I’ve only got ThisDay," I replied. “The Nation and Punch. But the office of NSA. Paid advert”, he said. I thanked him (LOL) even though I knew he didn’t mean well for me on that update.
Immediately, I got all the newspapers. But contrary to what Sowore earlier told me and said in the text, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) only listed and invited over 300 companies including Leeman Communications Ltd (without the names of the owners of the companies) to appear BEFORE A CONTRACT VERIFICATION COMMITTEE set up to defend their contracts. A very decent approach by any responsive and responsible government, I thought.
A couple of hours later, my phone started buzzing with phone calls from far and near. Many sympathetic callers asked if I’d seen what Sowore had put on his website. Some were even like, “But Lakeside, this Sowore guy is supposed to be your friend…” Even though I’d not seen what Sowore wrote, I was just telling everyone to calm down that I DIDN’T DO ANY WRONG, I WILL NEVER DO WRONG AND I WONT HAVE ANY PROBLEM. I said it so confidently.
Apparently, immediately after the release of the newspapers, Sowore went straight to publish a very malicious, dishonest and distorted report in which he stated that Leeman Communication, a company managed by “a UK based journalist and PR consultant, Lekan Fatodu” was one of the companies used by FFK to receive money from the controversial arms funds. Sowore also had one of his allies, a certain Kayode Ogundamisi, to put a picture of me and FFK together on Twitter and the guy wrote: “UK based Lekan Fatodu, photo attached, hurriedly set up Leeman Communication used by FFK to receive N1.7b.” Imagine that being said about a company that was registered in 2003!
I am only active on FB. So I don’t really know much that goes on Twitter, I only check my Twitter acct once in a while. But I got calls from quite a number of people who saw what this fellow did. So I did a Screenshot of them all.
Honestly, at the time, people around me were amazed that I wasn’t a bit RATTLED by the heinous acts of Sowore and his internet-allies. During that time, I still kept on with my usual professional engagements including the lighter ones like FB updates without giving any importance to their malevolent antics.
I was just VERY SURPRISED that someone I had shown so much LOVE and SUPPORTED would get that terribly VICIOUS towards me for no just reason. This was the Sowore that was LITERALLY BEGGING ME at the early days of his SAHARAREPORTERS, precisely between 2007 and 2008, to HELP him with some stories he was trying to cover in London. I will only share two mails of Sowore to me in 2007 and 2008 to validate these claims.
This was SOWORE who, after getting married in America many years ago, and was coming to Nigeria for the first time with his wife, reached out to me and said: “Lakeside, you are one of the very few PRESENTABLE friends my wife would love to meet”. I will never forget that line. It was that statement of his that made me leave everything I was doing to meet with him, drive him in my car and head to Tarkwa Bay where we had fun and took pictures. I hope Sowore will put those pics out someday for people to see how WE ALL LOOKED THEN. LOL.
It was the same Sowore who told me when his father died in 2005 and because I couldn’t make it to Nigeria, I had to send someone to give him money. Sowore came back to tell me I was one of the very few who supported him with cash. And this was also Sowore who, just in 2014, reached out to me for a hangout (we were coincidentally both in Nigeria at the time). We went for a dinner together, and he even BEGGED that myself and my friend and business partner, Dare Olaniyan (Andre), who accompanied me should wait to drive him to a spot called Freedom Park on Lagos Island, my first time of knowing that lovely watering
L-R: Seun Anikulapo-Kuti, Dare Olaniyan (ANDRE) and Sowore in 2014
hole. We waited till the wee hours of the night because of Sowore. (Here are a few pictures of the night) I swear, myself and this guy have a long history of mutual and private encounters that are too many to state here. Moving forward, interestingly Dare Olaniyan was one of the core hands on the NSA project. He knew about the invitation for the defence of our contract and he was well prepared. Our other executive, Akinola Oladimeji was also set for the 20th January 2016 date of Leeman Communication’s appearance. Armed with all the company’s documents, bank statement of accounts and other relevant documents as requested in the newspapers, the three of us all made our way to Abuja. We got to the ONSA early enough. We waited till the opening hour of the office. In good time, the office was opened. We were politely conducted in and seated at the reception of the ONSA. Shortly after, we were called into the CONTRACT VERIFICATION COMMITTEE’s room. The arrangement was based on first come, first served basis. We were first to arrive, so we were first to be called in.
We met the committee members in a conference room. And they asked us to sit in the appropriate positions in the room. After we introduced ourselves, they started throwing questions from different directions, to the three of us, on the job we did for the ONSA. And we responded very accurately and professionally. After about 15 minutes of questioning we were asked for all our documents. We submitted the documents including the reports. The original documents we brought were properly checked, photocopies of needed materials were made and the originals were returned. By this time, it was evident that the committee members were totally satisfied with our job and presentation. Finally, we were commended and advised to continue on our noble and exemplary paths. Within 25 minutes we were out of the ONSA! We stepped out thanking GOD, cheering each other and calling to thank the people who had called to encourage us over the issue and who had always believed in our commitment to positive contribution to the development of Nigeria. Remember, I’ve said from the get-go that we had no issue to answer. We are ethical professionals and we make our marks in every society that we do business in. After this OVERWHELMING victory, I was DESPERATE to reach Sowore because he was also in town at the time. I knew he was waiting to hear a bad news that Lekan Fatodu was held down so he could justify his evil story against me. I forgot to mention that my self and Sowore had exchanged some harsh words via Whatsapp and email after he mentioned me in the despicable report on 8th January 2016.
I was eager to meet Sowore at least to demonstrate some of the prescriptions he suggested for FIGHTING INJUSTICE anywhere in our early years. So I was glad when a former classmate in UNILAG who is also close to Sowore and who also lives in the US called that he was also in Nigeria and that he and Sowore would be hanging out at a club at night and he asked if I would be interested in a kind of “reunion”. I was so excited that I agreed to his invitation immediately. For the guy to have suggested such, I knew he was not aware of what had happened. I hoped that he wouldn't tell Sowore that he had told me to come. But he apparently did. The guy didn’t pick nor call back till the third day. He later told me that Sowore showed him our exchanges and said I was disrespectful to him all along. I explained my part and the guy was really shocked.
Dare Olaniyan (ANDRE) and my humble self
I must confess that immediately after the VICTORY at the ONSA, I wanted to make some noise about that fantastic and memorable experience but I was advised to wait till the Federal Government made its official release on the committee’s report. I’m really blessed with some wonderful people around me. I am also glad I always listen to them. I honestly can’t express the love from my family members, some great friends and some very selfless and supportive people in high and humble places during that period. So, on Friday 25th March 2016 the Federal Government of Nigeria released its OFFICIAL REPORT on the findings of the VERIFICATION COMMITTEE of the ONSA, which was signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu. In it, some companies were mentioned to have been handed over to the EFCC for further investigation while some failed to execute contracts and had therefore been asked to refund various amounts of money.
I’M GRATEFUL TO GOD WE WERE NOT IN THE ENTIRE NEGATIVE LISTS. Hence we have continued with our brilliant endeavours without any hitch. I am certain if our company had appeared on any of those negative lists Sowore would have gone first to break the sad news about Lekan Fatodu! Therefore Sowore couldn’t CALL or TEXT as he was doing previously. And of course an APOLOGY will be too WEIGHTY for him!
In conclusion, it might interest you all to know that I HAVE PERSONALLY GONE BACK TO ONSA TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL FOR MORE WORK. After all they say the REWARD FOR GOOD WORK IS MORE WORK. Nigeria still needs ETHICAL PROFESSIONALS AND ENTREPRENUERS LIKE THOSE IN LEEMAN, and I AM PROUD TO SAY I AM ONE OF THEM. And I trust this new proposal will also pull through successfully. And to my friend and brother Sowore (after all, he is still my friend on this FB page LOL), my mind is free of any ills against you. I’ve moved on to glorious things and I’ve continued to take fantastic JOBS in different quarters with Leeman and CheckOut (you can Check that Out too or start your evil investigation in those quarters. You know my full name, passports (YES PASSPORTS) etc LOL ).
That said, if you are still saddened by my decent rise and about this TESTIMONY FROM THE ONSA you can concoct another bile report against me or inform your so-called EFCC SAUCE to reach me (you’ve got all my CONTACTS). I’ve always known that the major malady with envious people is not that they are not moving ahead in their endeavours but they just don’t feel that anyone around them deserves a place to shine. But I’ve told Sowore, in one of our heated email exchanges, he can NEVER STOP MY SHINE because our paths are clearly different in life.
“Aburo (LEKAN FATODU), you are a CHAMPION”, that’s always been the statement of my dear Egbon and mentor Mr. Gbola Oba (a foremost policy analyst & entrepreneur) to me. So I always humbly prACTice like a CHAMPION!
My PRIORITY!
Look, this PRETTY GIRL is my priority. She needs to live good and will also live to see the good work her father has left behind. So I am even just getting started…Happy Birthday to me!
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