Little Ends: Still on El-Rufai
by Pius Adesanmi
I assume that the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign affairs, Ambassador Joe Keshi, read George Orwell’s famous novel, 1984, before authoring the face-saving memo that was reportedly responsible for President Yar’Adua’s volte-face in the Nasir el-Rufai/Nuhu Ribadu passport saga.
Acting on “orders from above”, Ambassador Keshi sent a memo to Nigeria’s diplomatic missions abroad instructing them to deny consular services to Nasir el-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu, two “enemies” that President Yar’Adua now imagines he sees “under pillow, inside cooking pot” everyday (apologies to Fela).
After obeying the reckless order, Ambassador Keshi, I guess, remembered that he owes his reputation and impressive profile as one of the most cultured minds in the foreign service in part to the years he has spent working in civilised climes where civil servants are not robots and have sufficient latitude to decline unconstitutional assignments.
For instance, President Obama can expect his orders to be disregarded if he wakes up one day and orders Hillary Clinton to have even a lowly clerk at the State Department circulate a memo to American embassies around the world denying consular services to a neo-conservative loony guilty only of the ‘crime’ of running his mouth against the Obama administration abroad.
You don’t get to order unconstitutional actions against a citizen of the United States even if you are president.
Remembering these things, Ambassador Keshi fired a second memo to the knuckleheads who made him do it in the first place:
“I write to acknowledge receipt of your letter Ref No 28/Vol.13 dated 15 September, 2009 on the above subject and to attach herewith a copy of the action taken in compliance with your letter mentioned above. However, having implemented the content of your letter, under reference, I am directed to raise some concerns of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose advice on the issue would have been useful in the first instance.
“The decision not to renew the former Minister’s passport may unwittingly portray the Federal Government in bad light within the international community as a government that is too sensitive to criticism.
“The decision could engender more sympathy for him, which he could utilise to greater advantage especially if he opts to pursue the matter in court. That sympathy could also, as in the past, lead to some sympathetic country granting him temporary travelling documents, which will in the end defeat our purpose and render our action irrelevant…
“Equally, is the view that the criticism of the Government could increase resulting in an unnecessary distraction that Government could do without at the moment. The best antidote to the Mallam el-Rufai menace is to generally ignore him, monitor his movement and where necessary respond without delay to some of his most stringent comments.
“It is our silence and inability to respond promptly, extensively and effectively to his numerous comments since he left Nigeria that has hurt us most than the things he has said…” There are several red flags in Ambassador Keshi’s memo.
“First, a cultured diplomat advises a civilian government in a supposedly democratic dispensation to “monitor the movement” of a citizen of Nigeria! Who is next? Second, Keshi creates an “us” and “them” binary between his rule-of-law government and free citizens of Nigeria. Imagine the number of possessive adjectives – our this, our that – in the memo!
These people in Abuja sure have a way of thinking that they own Nigeria. Imagine calling a citizen who exercises the right to criticise your government – never mind that he played a tragic role in dumping the Yar’Adua nightmare on Nigeria – a menace! If this is the quality of advice that the Yar’Adua administration is getting from its most cultured minds, we are truly in trouble.
If Ambassador Keshi lifted the Big Brother option from Orwell’s novel, what would less cultured fellaslike James Ibori and Andy Uba have advised? Perhaps, Joe Keshi can be forgiven for the 1984-ish character of his memo.
“He was in service in the military era when the Big Brother thing was woven into our collective psyche and we are yet to rid our ethos completely of it. Enter The Guardian to provide the final act of this saga! In its edition of Sunday October 18, 2009, The Guardian praised Joe Keshi for saving “government from reproach”, conveniently forgetting the fascist undertones of Keshi’s memo.
“If conscience is an open wound, very few Nigerian newspapers are prepared to buy the balm of truth needed to nurture it!
October 28, 2009
Tags: el Rufai, Joe Keshi, Nigeria, Ribadu Posted in: Pius Adesanmi
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