By Mohammed Bello Doka
In politics, timing is every part. In diplomacy, character is every part. And in moments of nationwide significance, management have to be entrusted to people who possess not solely expertise however braveness, mind and an unshakable dedication to the nation they characterize.
It is for that reason that the appointment of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode as Nigeria’s Ambassador to a international nation stands out as some of the consequential diplomatic selections in recent times.
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, higher identified within the South as “FFK” and within the North as “Sadauki”, is without doubt one of the most sensible, skilled, achieved, vocal, revered, educated, profound, mental, patriotic, disciplined, well-read, traditionally literate, versatile, forceful, persuasive, refined, cosmopolitan, charming, eloquent, brave and resilient males in Nigerian politics and he has paid his dues and proved his value over the past 35 years in politics and political discourse.
In every position he has performed, he has excelled and succeeded even when he was in opposition.
His mates worth him as a terrific and constant defender, and his traducers and political adversaries concern and respect him as a result of when he goes to warfare, he’s totally relentless, takes no prisoners and actually spits hearth.
How I want it have been him who was interviewed by Mehdi Hassan of Al Jazeera and never the younger and inexperienced Daniel Bwala, as a result of he would haven’t solely humbled Hassan but in addition executed Nigeria proud.
He performed Bwala’s current position within the Presidential Villa 23 years in the past as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s spokesman and never solely introduced the then President’s home enemies to their knees but in addition had a sequence of very popular exchanges with international Authorities officers like America’s Below-Secretary of State for Africa Jendaye Fraser and the White Home over the Charles Taylor situation and Liberia.
Tinubu’s determination to nominate him as an Ambassador for our nation was a smart one as a result of he’ll combat for and defend the pursuits of Nigeria and the Nigerian group wherever he goes and can by no means promote his soul or bow to international imperialist pursuits.
His appointment is not only about rewarding loyalty for the important thing position he performed in Tinubu’s presidential marketing campaign organisation as Director of New Media and Particular Operations in 2023 and the staunch assist he has given the President over the past three years, but in addition about placing a sq. peg in a sq. gap.
If you wish to put Nigeria first, Sadauki is the one to do it.
If he runs the Nigerian Mission within the nation that he’s despatched to in the identical manner he ran the Ministry of Tradition and Tourism and the Ministry of Aviation when he was Minister to every of them one after the opposite twenty years in the past, he’ll do very nicely and each our nation and whichever nation he’s posted to itself will profit from his efforts.
Historical past teaches that diplomacy is only when nations deploy people who possess each mind and braveness.
Because the American statesman Henry Kissinger as soon as famous, “Diplomacy is the artwork of restraining energy.”
To take action efficiently requires deep historic consciousness and strategic readability—qualities which have lengthy outlined Fani-Kayode’s political profession.
Sending a politically seasoned voice like FFK to any nation that could be a key associate to Nigeria indicators that Bola Ahmed Tinubu intends to strengthen Nigeria’s diplomatic posture with confidence.
All through greater than three many years within the political enviornment, Fani-Kayode has remained some of the resilient and outspoken figures in Nigerian public life regardless of quite a few challenges which might have damaged and destroyed lesser males.
No matter all that was thrown at him, he continues to tug by and are available out victorious, which is why many seek advice from him because the “Akanda Eledumare” and the “Ayanfe Oluwa”, which imply “the unusual one among God” and “the beloved of the Lord”.
There seems to be a divine dimension to his life that makes him unstoppable and irrepressible, though his enemies are legion.
One wonders what units him aside and makes him so completely different.
There is no such thing as a doubt that his training performed an element in it, and this set him aside from most.
He by no means went to highschool in Nigeria, however was educated from the age of eight in England beginning off at Holmewood Home Faculty in Kent, one of many UK’s finest and most well-known Preparatory faculties, after which he attended the well-known Harrow Faculty simply outdoors London which is, along with Eton School, an establishment that’s the unique protect of excessive society within the UK, one of many two finest non-public faculties in that nation the place solely the ruling elite, the wealthy, the well-to-do, the well-known and solely a tiny proportion of these in British excessive society can afford and even qualify to attend.
At least eight British Prime Ministers, together with the good Sir Winston Churchill, and numerous British cupboard ministers attended Harrow, and so did many leaders, diplomats and high politicians from many international nations.
After ending at Harrow, he attended among the high universities on the planet, together with London College (SOAS) and Cambridge College (Pembroke School), the place he did so nicely.
As a matter of truth, his great-grandfather, Rev. Emmanuel Adelabi Kayode, attended Furrough Bay School, which at the moment was a part of Durham College and graduated with an MA (Hons.) in Theology in 1893. His grandfather, Justice Adedapo Kayode, attended Cambridge College (Selwyn School), the place he studied regulation and graduated in 1922. His father, Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode, attended Cambridge College (Downing School), the place he studied regulation and graduated in 1943. Sadauki himself graduated in regulation at Cambridge College (Pembroke School) in 1984, while his daughter Folake Fani-Kayode graduated from Durham College in 2009.
No African household has an uninterrupted streak of 116 years of Oxbridge-level college graduates aside from the Fani-Kayode’s, which is one thing that each his household and each patriotic Nigerian must be happy with.
It subsequently makes good sense {that a} man from such a distinguished pedigree and intimidating lineage, and who has such a unprecedented mental heritage, ought to characterize Nigeria on the worldwide stage.
There’s additionally his position within the debate on Gaza, which made him a hero within the eyes of thousands and thousands of individuals within the World South, each amongst Christians and Muslims.
He spoke out persistently about what he described because the genocide being dedicated towards the Palestinians, and he was ready to place his life and profession on the road for this trigger, though most Nigerian leaders and politicians refused to say what he was saying publicly out of concern of the Zionist foyer and the Jewish state.
His sense of patriotism is unquestionable and nothing displays this higher than his sequence of essays written towards Kemi Badenoch, the chief of the British Opposition Conservative Celebration and his write up towards one Ben Llewelyn-Jones, who at the moment was the Deputy British Excessive Commissioner to Nigeria, when the previous persistently sought to insult and denigrate Nigeria and the Nigerian folks and the latter tried to intrude in our inner affairs by making statements in assist of Peter Obi and his Obidients within the 2023 presidential elections.
Sadauki efficiently put them each of their place and when American Senator Ted Cruz, President Donald Trump, Congressman Tim Riley and different American politicians started to hawk the false narrative and faux gospel of Christian genocide and persecution in Nigeria Sadauki, a religious Christian himself, rose to the problem and greater than every other Nigerian wrote concerning the situation in a sequence of essays stating the truth that as many Muslims have been being killed as Christians by the terrorists in our nation and that Christians weren’t being persecuted by our Authorities and are in truth faring higher in relation to positions within the safety equipment and governance beneath Tinubu than they did within the earlier administration.
He additionally spoke out boldly towards President Trump and his administration after they accused the Authorities of South Africa of indulging in genocide towards the white minority inhabitants of their nation and identified the truth that South Africa, like Brazil, was a shining instance of a profitable multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation that was treating its white minority inhabitants with the best respect. Few Africans mentioned a phrase to defend South Africa on the time, though they knew that Trump was improper, however Sadauki did so with out considering twice.
He’s clearly a robust Pan-Africanist and a believer within the significance of the African Union, African solidarity, the BRICS coalition and the World South alliance comprising China, Russia, South Africa, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and different rising world powers.
That is commendable, and it displays his braveness and disdain for individuals who show ignorance, disdain and contempt for our nation and other people and who search to denigrate and misrepresent us.
Sadauki will not be the kind that bows and quivers earlier than Westerners like so many different Nigerian leaders and politicians, however slightly takes satisfaction in his Nigerian tradition, race, heritage and identification and is ready to defend us and communicate for us, irrespective of whose ox is gored and who’s concerned.
In an more and more aggressive world atmosphere, Nigeria requires diplomats succesful not solely of negotiation but in addition of defending nationwide pursuits with conviction.
If the power, eloquence and mental hearth which have outlined Fani-Kayode’s political life accompany him to the nation to which he has been posted, his tenure might nicely turn into some of the consequential chapters in Nigeria’s trendy diplomatic engagements.
I want him nicely, and I thank God that he’s again within the saddle of public workplace after so a few years.
What extra may any of us ask of this nice and noble son of Nigeria?
That is undoubtedly the standard of personnel and leaders that we want on the worldwide stage.
I hope and pray that in his endeavours and in the course of the course of his work, he meets with Mehdi Hassan in a debate and proves to him and the remainder of the world that Nigeria nonetheless has males who cannot solely match them however that may additionally take away their trousers in any verbal encounter.
*Doka, the writer of this essay, is the writer of Abuja Community Information and could be reached through [email protected])