After what seemed like eternity, President Bola Tinubu, as a ‘master strategist’ potentate, announced the names of those nominated as ambassadors. These are individuals who would represent the country in foreign missions worldwide.
The list stunned millions of Nigerians with all the potent demystification of the ambassadorial designation. The names reduced the prestige usually associated with the position of an ambassador. My only disappointment is that our dear MC Oluomo’s name is not on the list. In the following weeks, I hope to write an essay titled, “Ambassadorial List: Justice for MC Oluomo”.
How could Mr President omit Oluomo’s name from that list, just how? Given the names of the characters on the list, it is an injustice of an Olympian dimension that the popular MC Oluomo’s name is conspicuously missing from it. Where any doubt existed of Tinubu’s proclivity to reduce Nigeria’s reputation through official indulgences, the names of those he has nominated for ambassadorial positions have erased it. Where the list does not ooze of disgrace, it reeks of political patronage in all its potential for endorsing mediocrity.
Given the current administration’s struggles with legitimacy, the government must always uphold integrity and avoid individuals with a duplicate, questionable past. To nominate persons with pending cases of official heist hanging on their necks as ambassadors is to convey a message to the world.
As long as cases of official fraud are not determined by EFCC, no indicted individual deserves to be honoured with an appointment as distinguished as an ambassador. To do so is to strengthen the narrative that Tinubu’s political enterprise is sustained by primitive patronage to the detriment of integrity and the rule of law. It is enough insult that many political heavyweights in Nigeria today, including lawmakers, have pending cases of fraud with the EFCC. But to advance that kind of criminal culture where indicted persons are compensated with appointments through the current ambassadors’ nominated list is to play the devil’s game.
Have we, under the current government, become a country where criminality is officially rewarded to the detriment of honesty, hard work, and good behaviour? It is insensitive and reveals a leader who does not care about the emotions of millions of people under his influence.
It is insulting to Nigerians that Mr Fani Kayode has been nominated as an ambassador by Tinubu. In all ramifications, this character does not deserve any official appointment, given his divisive effusions and documented bigotry. An ambassador will serve Nigeria and Nigerians abroad.
But when an acrimonious character who traffics in bigotry and ethnic hate is appointed as an ambassador, it leaves much to be desired. It raises questions about the genuine intentions of the president. Fani Kayode has been a megaphone for ethnic hate and religious double standards.
When he is not spewing hate against Christians, he is releasing missiles against Muslims. Over the years, he has proved to be an unstable, indeterminate character whose convictions are at best questionable and unhinged. In 2017, the former governor of Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi, unequivocally declared that Fani Kayode embezzled 2 billion naira as Aviation Minister. According to Amaechi, the money was given to him by the former Rivers State governor, Peter Odili, for the maintenance of the Port Harcourt airport.
Till today, Fani Kayode has not refuted the allegation. Many Nigerians believe that he actually embezzled public funds. On the strength of that, he does not deserve to occupy any public office. Yet, this character is an ambassadorial nominee under Tinubu. It is a national disgrace.
The most despicable complexion of the ambassadorial list is the inclusion of Mr Reno Omokri on the document. Without a doubt, Reno Omokri is easily the vilest, conflict-ridden public figure in Nigeria today.
His chameleonic disposition points to a character with an impotent cognitive capacity, therefore not suitable to even represent his Delta State anywhere in the world, much less Nigeria. In the past, Omokri made videos calling Nigeria’s current president a ‘certified drug lord’.
In one instance, he challenged Tinubu to take him to court if he is not a known drug lord. On June 22 2022, Reno Omokri, through his official Twitter account @renoomokri tweeted, “I challenge @officialABAT, if you were not involved in a heroine drug ring in the United States in 1991-1993, then take me to court. Nigeria cannot have a KNOWN DRUG LORD as its President. I also challenge Tinubu to take a drug test with @NDLEA”.
On 28 June 2022, he tweeted, “The bigger issue with Tinubu is not his certificates, or lack of them. It is the fact that he is a KNOWN DRUG LORD who was involved in heroin drug cartel in the US, and forfeited millions in drug funds to US authorities. As any lawyer will tell you, a forfeiture is an admission of guilt. We have the court documents. We have the names of those involved and their past and current addresses. I again challenge Bola Tinubu to sue me if these facts are not accurate. He is not a fit and proper person to occupy the office of the President of Nigeria”.
Evidence abounds to show that Reno Omokri roundly embarrassed Nigeria’s current president. Curiously, the president or his aides never denied any of these accusations or took Omokri to court to clear his name. By nominating him as an ambassador, the president either endorses Omokri’s claims and other acts of bigotry or simply wants to disgrace Nigeria in international circles.
In the past, Omokri, for reasons best known to him, tweeted inciting messages that could cause ethnic disaffection, hatred, and violence in Nigeria. Is that kind of character a fit and proper person to represent Nigeria abroad at a time when the country needs internal and external cohesion?
There is no justifiable reason for Tinubu to nominate Reno Omokri as Nigeria’s ambassador unless the president wants to compensate him for his repeated, revolting, uncontrolled expletives on Peter Obi and other political opponents of the president. Indeed, international relations should not be sacrificed on the altar of political patronage.
Mr Mahmood Yakubu’s name is also on the list of nominated ambassadors. As the INEC boss, the 2023 election stands out as the most fraudulent, manipulated election in the history of Nigeria.
It was during Yakubu’s tenure that the word “glitch” acquired a measure of popularity only comparable to “fraud” in Nigeria’s power corridors. Before the election, Mahmood Yakubu promised Nigerians repeatedly and on different forums that election results would be transmitted electronically. He kept his promises during the gubernatorial elections.
However, on the day of the presidential elections, conducted simultaneously with the National Assembly elections, demons from Mars infected INEC servers. While the results of the National Assembly elections were transmitted electronically in real time, the results of the presidential elections were transmitted manually, giving room for manipulation.
Mahmood Yakubu shamelessly announced the discredited results to the chagrin and consternation of millions of Nigerians. That same man, who proved his dishonesty beyond every schema of reason, is today going to represent Nigerians abroad. Political patronage must be understood and practised within the boundaries of common sense, unhidden and undisguised.
The former governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu’s name should be expunged from the list immediately. He cannot be rewarded with an ambassadorial position after pulverising Abia State, leaving it in utter ruins.
The media reported that the EFCC uncovered a contract scam of 118 billion naira while he was governor of the state, among many other abuses of office. He is also accused of paying out 10 billion naira for a bogus Abia State airport that never materialised. The reward for such recklessness and brazen official irresponsibility should not be the position of an ambassador. Alex Otti’s excellent, reformative strides in Abia State today reveal how much Ikpeazu plunged the state into the depths of penury.
The National Assembly has a patriotic responsibility to save Nigeria from the imminent disgrace some individuals on the ambassadorial list would cause the country. Nigeria may be challenged on all fronts, but the country does not lack qualified persons to occupy any official position in whatever capacity.
Nigeria cannot continue to throw up the worst among us to represent us. It is bad enough that it took Mr President over two years to appoint ambassadors. It is tragic that when he finally decided to appoint the ambassadors, it was anticlimactic and disgraceful.
The National Assembly must not rubber-stamp this ambassadorial list and see it as a political affair. Nigeria cannot continue to be at the mercy of a few demagogues who assume the country is their private fiefdom. The current caricature of the ambassadorial list must be halted immediately. National Assembly, over to you.
Promise Adiele PhD
promee01@yahoo.com
X: @drpee4
