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The Dog and Pony show By Kayode Tani-Olu
Before we get into the meat of what I have to say, I would like to reveal some facts. I was myself a Foreign Service Officer for 13 years (1983 - 96) after which I voluntarily left the service to do something else with my life. While, I have former colleagues at the Embassy in Washington D.C., I have visited there only five (5) times in the 13 years that I have lived in the United States of America, when I required Consular assistance (visas for the children, renewing my passport, etc). The background of my former colleagues currently serving at the Embassy, cut across every region of our great country, since every area can be said to be fairly represented. Beyond this, these officers are the most honorable, decent and patriotic assembly of men and women that I have ever seen in any one Nigeria Embassy, in my lifetime. I know each and every one of them.
I have never met either of the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Madueke or H.E. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, General Oluwole Rotimi of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What I know about either one is from stuff that I have read in Nigerian newspapers and on the web.
That I am a Yoruba, as my name identifies me and I cannot hide that fact. I have never nor do I intend to bid for a contract at the Embassy in Washington DC or at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja. I have revealed these facts, because I believe I need to make transparent my relationship with, or lack thereof, with either of these two eminent Nigerians, at least before anyone accuses me of any form of tribal bias in this unnecessary drama. I am an independent IT Consultant/Contractor, and the US government and many of its arms of government happen to be my clients, and that is good enough for me.
There is no big deal about recalling an Ambassador from foreign posting. It’s done all of the time, but they have to be done for the right reasons and done properly. It is sad that our country has now dropped to a level where a principal envoy is recalled on a whim because he fell out with his supervising Foreign Minister. Even if that was the reason for recalling him, due process or established conventions for achieving this has to be followed. Since due process was not followed, what are we to make of it? What bothers me is that we have now become the laughing stock and the object of gossip within the diplomatic community around the Washington DC metro area.
The Hon. Foreign Minister makes frequent trips to DC and he expects H.E the Ambassador to follow him around in tow. For the Ambassador to follow The Hon. Foreign Minister around town whenever he come to DC, or to meet the Hon. Minister at the airport every time he flies into the US on any of his numerous visits is the most narcissistic thing I have ever heard. What then is the job of the Embassy’s protocol officer? If the Ambassador were visiting the State department or the White House, on official assignment, such will be at the invitation of the State Department, then, that is a different matter. The Foreign Minister cannot claim that he visits The White House or the State Department each and every time he visits the US, that is nonsense, since that not possible. Diplomatic relations are never conducted in that kind of manner, and in any case, he would have, by so doing, become a nuisance to the US government. He should take a cue from one former Nigerian president, who was in the habit of consistently showing up here in DC, unannounced, to see the President of the United States. On one of those occasions, the American authorities refused to receive, let alone grant him audience with the President of the United States. He got the message; he left in embarrassment and simply stopped that bad habit. What that President did not realize is that “Diplomacy is the sport of Kings” – Richard T. Arndt.
We heard also that Nigeria sent an entourage to the Obama inauguration ceremony. However, the Nigerian entourage was composed of two large delegations. What are we to make of that? The hotels in and around DC were fully booked many weeks ahead of the inauguration Hon. Minister had to stay in a hotel many miles outside, DC. I know of many people who rented out their homes for a princely sum (in the neighborhood of $6000 a week) at about the time of the inauguration because hotel accommodations were not available in a 30 mile radius of Washington DC. People came from all over the United States, Canada and Europe in their private capacities. The Government of the United States of America however did not invite any foreign government representatives/delegations to the inauguration. How to manage the security of these foreign Heads of State/Governments and ministers with the 4 million or so visitors would have been a security nightmare for the US Secret Service. And Washington DC is just about the size of Lagos Island!
For Americans, the inauguration is a very sacred national ceremony, to which they normally do not invite foreign dignitaries and the new Obama administration particularly tried to keep to that tradition. Only accredited principal envoys to the United States (Ambassadors, Charge d’Affaires, the Papal Nuncio, etc), Members of Congress, family members and a few captains of finance, industry and business were invited. The “Obama “family “members from Kenya were only three! His aunt in London, his step-mother and her chaperon! The Nigerian posse, with known penchant for estacode and touring advances shows up with two delegations, for an inauguration to which they were never invited! I kind of wonder who approved the trip for the delegations, knowing that there were no invitations? They then tried to get the US Secret Service to replace the Ambassador’s invitation with one for the Hon. Foreign Minister (who was not invited), Come on! The American Secret Service simply refused. America does not function that way, they are people who for most parts, follow rules and regulation to the letter, no matter what. I recall, two years ago, the Police arrested Congressman Kennedy for drunk driving in DC when he crashed his car on the way from a party. He was “booked” on the spot, and had to get somebody to bail him from the Police Station that night. He could not have been allowed to go home by himself since he was too drunk to drive. The following day he was dragged to court before a judge. But I digress. That kind of thing from law enforcement will never happen in Nigeria. Why do we think we can impose our “Nigerian” way on other people’s traditions? These people follow regulations. It was not the Ambassador’s fault that the US Secret Service did not agree to our untoward request, and the “disgrace” that came with it.
Then, all of a sudden, we heard that the Ambassador said something about Biafra’s “rag-tag army”. The Ambassador is now being recalled for that without anyone at least hearing his own side of the story. How convenient! I do not believe that the Ambassador could have said what he has been accused of saying, for no reason (if he said it) let alone put it or write it in a memo. Like I said, I have never met him. I do not believe he would say a thing like that. Giving him the benefit of doubt for his age, he is not a child. This is a man who was in a regimented career, where discipline and order was the way of life. He was career soldier. He was investigated and it was discovered that he was one of the few that was found not to have corruptly enriched himself at the time when he was a Governor. He had fought in a civil war to keep Nigeria one.
The Ambassador cannot wake up one morning and say those things he is accused of saying. Why would a man of his stature be provoked to say something like that? What was it that transpired between the two of them previously? Nobody is saying anything about these, and that is why I have said that I do not believe the accusations. We have not been told the whole story since it easy to hide the rest of it behind a something that the Ambassador was supposed to have said, because it is dramatic. They also say he put it in a memo. Let the press have access to the so called memo, and let them publish it or are we not in a democracy? Nigerians like drama, don’t they? I am surprised the Nigerian Press has not caught this yet, because I want to be proved wrong. There are three sides to a story, the truth, the truth and the truth!
I have read many opinions on this matter in the last couple of weeks, especially from people I can regard as “arm chair” foreign policy experts as well as my compatriots from certain parts of Nigeria who would obviously feel sensitive to these kinds of statements. Some of these people have easily employed tribal arguments to make their point. Before they can make any informed comments I invite them to buy a copy of one of the following books:
Journey to Become a Diplomat: With a Guide to Careers in World Affairs by George Cunningham, FPA Global Vision Books 2005, ISBN 0-87124-212-5 We read some of these books at the Foreign Service Academy. The Nigerian Foreign Service Academy which I attended in 1986-87 was world class. Its graduates, Nigerian Foreign Service Officers, may never realize that. It was better that the ivy-league type of education that some of us have received here in the US. However, let it be known that the Hon. Foreign Minister serves at the pleasure of the President, and nobody else. The Ambassador (Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, in the case of General Oluwole Rotimi) also serves at the pleasure of the President. Like the Hon. Foreign Minister, the Ambassador had to go through a confirmation process at the National Assembly. He is a political appointee, like the Hon. Minister. The both of them represent the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its people, albeit, in different capacities, one at home in Abuja, and the other in Washington DC. The Ambassador is NOT a staff of the Ministry or Hon. Foreign Minister. If the Hon. Minister wanted a “staff’ in Washington, perhaps the President should have appointed a career Foreign Service Officer (FSO) in the first place. It would have been easy to bully that type of person.The ambit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Hon. Foreign Minister, in this case, as far as non-career Ambassadors are concerned, are only banausic at best, restrictively supervisory, only to the extent that the art diplomacy is conducted collaboratively, and in a manner consistent with national interests and ideology. The Ambassador in Washington, like the ones in London, Paris and a few other places, serve the President and the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in this capacity and not the Foreign Minister. That is why they are called “Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary”. For emphasis, the Foreign Minister did not appoint the non-career Ambassador, the President did. The Foreign Minister did not vet and approve his appointment, the National Assembly did. That is why when we appoint non-career Ambassadors (which is always at the expense loyal and long-serving career FSOs who are governed by the General Order, Civil Service Rules & Regulations as well as the “Foreign Service Regulations”) we might want to consider some of the implication of do so. The Hon. Minister does not easily have that kind of latitude to fire or discipline or even control a non-career Ambassador. So, if the Ambassador fell out with the Foreign Minister on personal or other reasons, then the Foreign Minister instigates his recall, and it was approved just like that? Going with established conventions, the Ambassador should have been invited to return home to explain his side of the story to his boss, the President. Thereafter, resultant action can be taken.
The only certainty in this matter is, it appears that these two men do not get along!
As always, we decided to choose the path of least resistance: look for a a convenient resolution. Recall the Ambassador. We ended up embarrassing ourselves as a nation instead and not the Ambassador. When an Ambassador leaves a post he has to say his goodbyes to his “brother Ambassadors” representing other countries in Washington DC, the State Department and President Obama. What does anyone think he will say to them of his reason for being recalled so quickly? But the story is all over town, since it is not a secret! Then these “brother Ambassadors” will now transmit this information to their own respective Foreign Ministers in their own countries, Nigeria will now try to lobby these counties for their support to have a seat in the UN Security Council! My goodness!! If you want a permanent seat at the Security Council, Washington DC is not the place to wash your cheap crusted dirty linen in public! In any case, did anyone notice that when the Ambassador heard that he was recalled, the man did not even bother to beg or lobby anybody, which implies that, as prestigious as the position of Ambassador to the United States is, he will not sacrifice or throw away his character and integrity in order to hold on to it. That is very un-Nigerian. My!! I respect him for that. Does that sound like the type of man who will make the kind of statements attributed to him? I simply don’t think so! He merely released a press statement that he did not say the things he was accused of.
Many of my clients at the US State Department who know me as a former Foreign Service Officer, have asked me questions that I cannot answer. I don’t know how to answer them, since this is the case nemo dat non quad habet. Such questions as how is Nigeria’s nation interest subordinate to the Foreign Minister’s personal interest? Can a Nigerian Ambassador be recalled just like that?
In times past, the Foreign Service has destroyed the careers of very many young and promising FSOs with this sort of attitude. There have been many cases of Ambassadors or senior colleagues reporting junior officers of things often-times they did not do, or if they did, could have been handled in a different way. The young officer is then recalled and immediate efforts to terminate and career is instigated. Every rule in the Service Rules and Regulations book is thrown at him. If he is lucky and survives it, he is grounded for 8 years (during which he will not see a foreign posting) or he might loose a promotion or two in the process. All this is because he/has hasn’t the right political connections to protect him, as only God can protect him. The senior officer’s word is the absolute truth, sometimes in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The people making these decisions are the same rank as the officer who reported the matter. He can never, explain his way out of it. He is done. Give a dog a bad name in order to hang it syndrome. I lost many honorable friends and colleagues to this type of thing, people trying to show how powerful they are. Junior officers always lived in terror of some more senior officers.
Perhaps the Hon. Minister wants to now extend this tradition to “uncontrollable” non-career Ambassadors by, reining in on them, by making one of them an example. If this is the case, Mr Hon. Minister, you are definitely barking the wrong tree. Pick on somebody else. Anything that happens in DC is not a secret.
When two individuals who were supposed to work together for the good of the country fall out with each other, for what ever reason, why is it that we do not have a culture of finding ways to resolve such conflict in the interest of the good of our country? Why is it that, the one has to destroy the other, to show that he has the power to do so? In conclusion, what is obvious is that the reason for their falling out is personal. To throw the Biafra element into it, is to try to hide that point. And then, the power and reach of government has now been used to determine the matter in this way. If that is not abuse of office, power and corruption, then I don’t know what is. Please let us put a stop to this dog and pony show, revisit the matter, and let the truth be told to the Nigerian people. Or perhaps it is that somebody else is interested in that position, and this is a convenient opportunity to get rim of the ambassador. Let put our house in order, ans put a stop to this comedy!
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