In April of this year Gordon Brown, then the British Prime Minister made a terrible mistake. He was caught on microphone describing a pensioner he had just spoken to as a “bigoted woman”.
Gillian Duffy, 65, had challenged him on issues including immigration. As he got into his car, he was still wearing a broadcast microphone and was heard to say “that was a disaster –they should never have put me with that woman. She is just a bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour”. And that was it! All the British media went after their Prime Minister.
The heat was so much that Mr Brown later went to Mrs Duffy’s house in Rochdale to apologise and sent an e-mail to Labour activists to say he “profoundly” regretted his comments.
After spending more than 40 minutes talking to Mrs Duffy, the prime minister said: “If you like, I’m a penitent sinner. Sometimes you say things you don’t mean to say, sometimes you say things by mistake and sometimes when you say things you’ll want to correct them very quickly. “
Why would a highly placed person like Mr Brown go down low and apologise to a woman he merely referred to as a “bigot”. It could happen because the two people live in a country that places high premium on the conduct of its public officers. Great Britain it was that subdued the ethnic groups and merged them into a country they proceeded to name Nigeria.
Today, Nigerians and particularly their leaders have no ethical standards to display as their inheritance from their British colonial masters. It is only in Nigeria that a President can declare that an election is a ‘do or die’ event or say that he is ready to pay any price as bribe to be elected without batting an eye.
Colonialism was evil and I will be the last person to romanticise a system that allowed a foreign people to leave their land and travel thousands of miles to go and subjugate another people for whatever reason. It is the most brutal and uncivil conduct.
But even as we condemn these acts of international terrorism, we should ponder a while and reflect on what we have done to ourselves as an independent country. Not long ago, we had a President who said he was a born again (maybe he meant to say born against) Christian. Yet he mounted a pulpit and called an ordained Priest an “idiot; a total idiot”. If Nigeria felt scandalised, the President with the tart tongue did not feel he owed his citizens an apology for the violent display of poor parenthood in a country where he was adored as “baba”.
Colonialism was not only an act of terror, it was legitimised thievery. The Brits looted our treasures abundantly and would have gone on with the spree if the will by our people to be free had not made the whole enterprise unprofitable. But when you turn around, you see evidence that even with the free for all looting that took place under colonialism, our former masters left evidence of investments for a rainy day. Take the rail lines they built. We have not added an inch to it fifty years after independence.
When you turn around to see what Nigerian leaders have done with our resources, you have no option but to confer Sainthood on our former tormentors. For instance, between 1999 and 2005 alone, Nigeria realised u$$109 bn or N15.67 trn from the oil sector alone. The gross revenue realised by the federation for that period was U$$140bn or N16.7 trn. These figures do not include income tax from other sources, customs revenue, VAT etc.
Nigeria is ranked to be the 10th highest oil producer in the world. But its population of about 150 million is said to be among the 25 poorest countries in the world. Nigeria’s per capita income of $900 (2004) is lower than that of many African countries. In 2005, the year of phenomenal economic growth in Africa, Nigeria did not rank among the first ten fastest growing economies in Africa.
Britain, as our former colonial master and as a leading country in world affairs, is considered a strategic diplomatic station for Nigeria. Any self respecting country would be very selective on whom to send to head such a mission. But alas, as it is with our internal affairs, so be it with our diplomacy.
I first met Dr Sarki Tafida as a young reporter in 1984. In the wake of the coup that sacked Shehu Shagari as President of Nigeria, he lost his status as a personal physician to the man but was appointed a Commissioner for Health in the old Kaduna State. I frequented his ministry and office in search of news. He seemed a free, decent and responsible man in those days and anytime I sought him out and his tight schedule allowed, I was given a chance to go in and have a word with him.
What the hell could have gone wrong with this nice man I used to know? Is it the lure of lucre? His record in the Senate – particularly his involvement in the wide scale ‘third term’ saga- stinks to high heavens. The actors in this treasonable drama all denied it; Obasanjo the mastermind, Tafida, one of the kingpins in the Senate and Nuhu Ribadu the dreaded thief catcher who was mandated to apprehend such dubious persons. We were told with a straight face that this scam did not happen whereas even the blind could see what was going on in Abuja in 2006.
Even with this background, Tafida was chosen to be our High Commissioner to the United Kingdom by 2007. His sins would have been forgiven if he were as penitent as Gordon Brown. But the man is unrepentant. Now he has chosen to play truancy.
The position he holds today as Nigeria’s number one envoy is not to be trifled with. Nigerians of all political persuasions travel to the UK in their thousands everyday. Can he win the confidence of those in opposition parties when he doubles as a personal hitman of Goodluck Jonathan and Nigeria’s Ambassador?
As things stand, that question does not even arise. The man has abandoned his diplomatic chair and is on the road here in Nigeria. He did not handover to anybody so things are just piling up there. Here in Nigeria, he is stuck deep in the murk. Reporters secretly embedded at a meeting presided over by him in Kano recorded him telling those in attendance that Goodluck Jonathan is ready to pay any price for their votes at the PDP primaries coming up soon.
This loose talker is indeed an extraordinary Ambassador.
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