By Bayo Oluwasanmi
These days, I get two questions on the Kogi Senator Dino Melaye: “Is he worse than he’s ever been?” “Does he need a psychiatrist?”
The two questions have been answered satisfactorily by his recent degree forgery brouhaha. Melaye is fighting for his political life entangled by web of lies surrounding his claim of chains of degrees from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Harvard, and London School of Economics (LSE).
In a series of investigations, SaharaReporters found that he didn’t graduate from ABU, Harvard, and LSE. But, in his testimony to the Senate, the ABU Vice Chancellor, Professor Ibrahim Garba, claimed Melaye “graduated” according to “available records.” Reacting to Garba’s testimony, Omoyele Sowore, Publisher, SaharaReporters, said “However, the authentic records in our possession shows that Melaye couldn’t have graduated, he did not fulfill some core course requirements of which, for example, “Geog 307 (Long Field Trip) …” “Daniel Jonah Melaye,” continues Sowore, “never fulfilled this core requirement, and further, several other carryovers were directly fixed for him by Ogbonna and some unscrupulous lecturers,” says Sowore.
Meanwhile, Melaye has filed a N5 billion libel suit at Federal High court in Abuja against SaharaReporters for defamation of character and wrongful accusation that he didn’t graduate from ABU. He also petitioned the Inspector General of Nigerian Police claiming that the story by SaharaReporters that he falsified his academic records constitutes a “cybercrime.”
Melaye’s record on truth and accuracy is astonishingly disturbing. Melaye sets out to deceive people and plays to people’s fantasies. Ninety-nine per cent of Melaye’s statements and claims are mostly false, or “Pants on Fire” meaning not only inaccurate but also insane. The truth in Melaye is doomed. Listen to him as he oozes out bagful of lies: “I am a graduate of Abuja University where I did Master’s in Policy Analysis. I am a graduate of London School of Economics and Political Science. I am also a graduate of Harvard University. I have seven degrees and I am pursuing the eighth one. So, it is surprising, it is a surprise to me that people will become so low… the intention is to slow me down but I will continue to speak the truth at all times.”
Furious about SaharaReporters investigations, Melaye said “SaharaReporters are obsessed by me. They are not only obsessed by me, they used me for marketing and whenever their profile and patronage is down, they used me to generate traffic. Unfortunately, there is no economic value for this relationship that I have with them. I will not be surprised tomorrow if SaharaReporters say Dino Melaye is not a Nigerian.”
Melaye as a senator has never shown he’s a robust adult thirsting for challenge and rigor. Rather, he continues to make obscene remarks, demands, and throwing tantrums when denied of it. In one of his juvenile delinquent outbursts on the senate floor, Melaye used the F-word and other defamatory remarks on Senator Remi Tinubu: “Look, this is not Bourdillion. I will beat you up… impregnate you and nothing will happen.” He once threatened to kill anyone who showed up to testify against Saraki and his deputy Ike Ekweremadu in a forgery case. Two of Melaye’s classmates said he was impeached as the President of the National Association of Geography Students (NAGS) in 1998/1999 because he was accused of stealing a brand new TV set belonging to the association. Melaye replaced the stolen TV set with old one.
If Melaye feels the bite of his trash talk is not effective enough, he sharpens his incisors to be sure no one escapes the sting. No one talks more trash than Melaye. He creates a vicarious thrill with his tomfoolery. With his unbridled assertiveness, Melaye’s mouth runs amok on any given issue. The cow dungs from his juvenile gibberish only exceeds the wattage of his eyeballs. He described his home state Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello as a political rat: “Quote me well: Yahaya Bello is small rat in politics.” Melaye’s loyalty is not to his constituents, Kogi or our nation, but to Bukola Abiku Mesujamba Saraki whom he introduced at an occasion as the “irremovable senate president.” When confronted by SaharaReporters’ correspondent how he came about his sudden wealth, he said: “I am a distinguished member of the federal government.”
Melaye is a vindictive, politically ruthless, unrepentant liar, megalomaniac, boorish, bullying braggart. Melaye is so shameless in lying that he doesn’t bother to pay lip service to the values of honesty, integrity, humility, and moral courage. By his unmatched success in lying, Melaye has dismissed our moral exemplars as suckers and losers instead of role models and leaders.
Nothing should surprise us about Dino MeLiars of Nigerian politics. It’s only a reaffirmation that our politics has always attracted a disproportionate share of scoundrels with a bottomless lust for greed, power, and self-aggrandizement. But the most painful thing about this, is we have actually embraced it as a people. Melaye suffers from self-deception with motivated irrationality because when he’s lying he believes he’s telling the truth when evidence points to the very opposite. He’s a cynical, self-deluded liar.
One thing about people like Dino MeLiar who have problems with the truth: those problems tend not to be one-time events. Dino MeLiar is an insufferable liar!