Nigeria as a country has just lived through a Minister of Defence who was accused of being in bed with bandits and terrorists. Our country conveniently ignored all the screams and red flags; waved all the denunciations and, with our eyes wide open, made the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, a Minister of State for Defence. In other words, that man became a member of Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council straight from his blighted sojourn in the governor’s office in Gusau.
Matawalle’s appointment was simply an utter disappointment which also spelled insensitivity, indifference and condescension on the part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Well, if Matawalle was appointed based solely on political reasons and considerations, why would he be cleared – perhaps told to simply ‘bow and go’ – by the Nigerian Senate? Or could the Senate claim ignorance of all the various unpalatable reports around Matawalle? Could it also be that the security agencies didn’t do ‘due diligence’ on ex-Governor Matawalle and didn’t present a report? Perhaps, it might be that the relevant security agencies did not have the information his successor, Governor Dauda Lawal, spoke about when he appeared on a national television show in September last year?
Now, within our short lifetime, not far from the debacle of Matawalle, our president has finally announced the appointment of career and non-career ambassadors. Let us move on from the sad fact that this has taken this administration an eternity to achieve. But before our very eyes, our dear country Nigeria is on the cusp ofhaving an ambassador who publicly riled up against a journalist for simply asking him a question. The commonly held belief is that a dog is not killed by the reason of his barking; the same kind of belief is held that a ram does not get into trouble for fighting. But a journalist got into trouble and was bathed with invectives for asking Femi Fani-Kayode a question!
That journalist, Mr. Charles Eyo, helped us to hear directly from Mr. Fani-Kayode what many had said in hushed tones and whimpers about the former Nigerian Minister of Aviation. He called Mr. Eyo “stupid” and “foolish” among other expletives for asking him who was bankrolling his curious “private tour of projects by state governments” across the country. He threw away the opportunity to properly explain that inexplicable tour of government projects he took upon himself at that period. Up till today, the point of that nationwide project inspection tour by Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode still remains a mystery. He apologised for that indiscretion at the next stop of the same tour in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
But was he forced to make a public apology over that verbal attack? My instincts say that he was forced to say sorry, because the public outrage against that ungentlemanly public display was not just heavy, it was telling. Besides, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) also asked its members to boycott any media event by Mr. Fani-Kayode. So, to salvage and hold some form of dignity in the eyes of the public, he had to apologise.
But after that apology, another incident of Mr. Fani-Kayode sparring with another journalist in Zamfara State was reported in the media. The reports said the second incident was days from the first one, in the same August 2020. Fani-Kayode’s media aide then said the question he was asked in Zamfara was ‘provocative’, and said if he was asked the same question in the same words, he would still repeat what he did.
The ambassadorial nominee who admitted openly that he has a “short fuse” is therefore dangerous for the image and health of our country. Those who do not know what “short-fuse” means should check one of the trending videos of Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode at a press conference in Calabar. Should he be asked provocative questions in his country of posting, what would happen? From his social media posts, especially on Twitter of X, one could see that Femi Fani-Kayode still expresses himself with heavy doses of emotion. His emotive posts would attract some tough and really provocative questions pertaining to those opinions of his. Has he changed enough to be able to handle what is to come, depending on where he is posted? Should he lands in Ghana for instance, would he not call Ghana names, and rile Ghanaians? Should he “lose it” like he did in Calabar, what would be his fate and that of Nigeria in the country of his posting?
Nigeria might also have Reno Omokri as an ambassador – a man to whom integrity is a pendulum swinging from one principle to another. This ambassador-nominee also believes that truth is actually not constant but is dependent on factors which affect the speaker of such ‘truth’. Omokri says he is a gospeller, but his gospel is not the Gospel of Christ but that of instinct and survival. His active social media presence and numerous political posts lie in wait as the Nigerians and the world await where he would take his brand of gospel to.
The announcement of these two would-be ambassadors has sparked serious outrage among different classes of Nigerians and also tasked the intellect on the true intentions of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. This is even more so when the debacle of the Matawalle’s nomination, clearance and eventual appointment is considered. The same level of outrage has trailed the announcement of Fani-Kayode and Omokri. They are not fit to be Nigeria’s ambassadors anywhere. Their nomination is just as disheartening but, perhaps a notch worse than those of Mahmood Yakubu and OkezieIkpeazu.
Nigerians are not expecting anything from both the security and senate screenings. The expected screening could be mere formality going by antecedents but the letter of agrément might do that whichenraged Nigerians were expecting the Nigerian screening institutions to do. This letter of agrément will be of great importance to the persons that have been so appointed. The security agencies will submit reports on each of the nominees and their job might not be based on what the majority of Nigerians are saying about these troublous nominees. So, that leaves us with the Senate and our senators.
The senators are our representatives and the people, who they represent, are vehemently crying against characters like Reno Omokri, Femi Fani-Kayode, OkezieIkpeazu and Mahmood Yakubu being Nigeria’s ambassadors. They are way below our standard as a people because of their past and what they represent at various times. They are colourful in their characters, they cannot be said to be straight. They therefore would be not good representatives of either the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or the country.
Even as we know that the president has that freedom to choose whomsoever he likes, going by the provisions of the constitution, he also has that duty to make things easier for himself and the citizenry by taking another look at these people. They are not good feet forward.
One outstanding instance to learn from would be the appointment of Dr Christopher Kolade as the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. When His Excellency Dr Kolade was appointed Nigerian High Commissioner, he was neither a practising politician nor a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in government at that time. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who appointed him, did not appoint him because of anything other than the fact that he would be respected and his speech and actions would be taken seriously, and this would rub off on Nigeria. Obasanjo and his PDP did not compel or coerce DrKolade to kowtow to him and his political party to be able to represent the country. The respected DrKolade was not made to take back anything he had said prior to his appointment or rationalise his critical opinions to suit the powers of the day.
Why can we not have people in the mould of Dr Kolade of blessed memory in our ambassadorial list? Why must we taint our appointments into sensitive offices? Are we saying that the world does not see the things we see and hear the things we hear about these individuals? We can do better than this!
Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
