Diplomats specialise in diplomacy, but recent events within Nigerian diplomatic circles have led me to think twice.
Nobody knows the remote cause of the brouhaha between the Nigerian Ambassador to the US, retired brigadier general Oluwole Rotimi, and his boss, the Foreign Affairs Minister chief Ojo Maduekwe. However, what officially sparked the crisis was a memo between the Nigeria Consulate in the US and the External Affairs Department in Abuja.
In that leaked correspondence, Ambassador Rotimi, a civil war veteran, bragged to his boss about his victory over the Biafran Army, in which Minister Maduekwe was reportedly a captain.
It had started with a dispute over who would attend the Obama inauguration. Authoritative sources posited that the invitation was sent to Ambassador Rotimi, but at the event, Foreign Affairs Minister Maduekwe surfaced with a delegation from the federal government.
It led to official written correspondence and unfortunately, Ambassador Rotimi threw decorum to the winds when he arrogantly told his boss: “I have dealt with people like you in the past. I was the Quarter-Master General of the Nigerian Army that thoroughly defeated your rag-tag Biafran Army.”
Amid intense criticism and an immediate recall from the president, Ambassador Rotimi apologised.
Although both men are stalwarts of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – peopled mostly by egotistic men who rig elections – they are nevertheless angling to be part of a clean democratic exercise, like the one that brought a black man to the top of US politics.
Thanks be to God that, in Nigeria, the truth is gradually protruding like a pregnancy, courtesy of electoral tribunals where PDP impostors who stole the people’s mandate are being swept out by the courts. Edo and Ondo states have recently seen such fraudsters lose their power.
Ambassador Rotimi’s remarks say alot about how Nigeria has been governed since the end of the civil war. With due regards to his age (he is 71), this man does not deserve a national office, and his statement is bringing back painful memories to Nigerians who lost loved ones during the fratricidal conflict.
How has Nigeria fared since January 1970, Uncle Rotimi? If all has been well, why are Nigerians of various ethnic stock in all corners of the globe struggling to make ends meet for themselves and their families at home? It is truly difficult to stomach the likes of Ambassador Rotimi, who is still basking in the euphoria of a civil war victory orchestrated by greedy foreign powers that are still milking the oil pie.
Not for the first time, it makes me wonder about the future of Nigeria.
Ukachukwu Okorie is originally from Nigeria. Visit his website at www.olumouka.com
