The former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has been redeployed from Germany to South Africa as Nigeria’s ambassador
Mr Fani-Kayode disclosed in a statement issued on Thursday that President Bola Tinubu has approved his reassignment to South Africa upon his request.
The request, he said, was put forward days after his posting was announced in March alongside that of 64 other ambassadorial appointees.
The former aviation minister said he “personally sought” redeployment due to personal and ideological reasons.
“I expressed the fact that I would rather serve in a country that shares some of my convictions, beliefs and values when it comes to world affairs, that has the biggest economy in Africa, that has closer ties to Nigeria, and that is more proximate to my political thinking when it comes to foreign affairs and a pan-African vision.
He also said, “I was not comfortable with Germany for several personal reasons. Given that I have lived in Europe most of my life, I would prefer to go to South Africa, which is a country that I have never been to and for which I have so much interest.”
He disclosed that he had presented his request and reasons to the then former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, who was still in his seat at the time.
He said Mr Tuggar considered his request favourably and subsequently presented it to President Tinubu, who approved the redeployment.
The former minister said he had spent much of his life in Europe and wished to serve in a country within Africa that aligns more closely with his views on foreign policy and Pan-Africanism.
He described South Africa as a country with strong bilateral ties with Nigeria and as occupying a strategic position on the continent due to its economic influence.
He expressed gratitude to both the president and the foreign affairs minister for what he described as a “gracious” consideration of his request.
He also acknowledged Sam Enang, the appointee initially posted to South Africa, for agreeing to swap places with him. This thereby makes Mr Enang the ambassador-designate to Germany.
He also denied the report that Germany rejected him for previously making tribalist and ethnic slurs. He insisted that the decision to switch was made solely by him.
“Germany never rejected me,” he wrote, adding that the report published by People’s Gazette in March was inaccurate.
The report stated that Germany rejected Femi Fani-Kayode’s ambassadorial posting due to his past “rabid ethnic and religious slurs as well as his erratic behaviour.”
Responding to this, however, Mr Fani-Kayode said, “The story was not only irresponsible and insulting but was also a total and complete fabrication based on hearsay, beer parlour talk and cheap gossip and designed to embarrass me, the President.
“Worse still they listed a number of clearly outlandish and absurd reasons for this purported and fake ‘rejection’ which they patched together and concocted reflecting the malevolent condition of their perverse imagination.”
The minister claimed that preliminary findings from an internal investigation showed that the report was sponsored and written with malicious intent.
He also added that petitions had been submitted to relevant security agencies regarding the publication and the individuals allegedly responsible for the report.
“I have also briefed my lawyers…and we shall be suing them in a civil action for defamation,” he said.
The former minister maintained that no formal rejection was ever issued by Germany, stating that the report emerged after diplomatic communication relating to his redeployment to South Africa was leaked and misrepresented.
“What actually happened was that the day an “agreement” was sent to South Africa by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was on March 13th, it was leaked to them and they falsely and maliciously reported that it was sent only because I had been formally rejected by Germany which they knew to be false,” he noted.
He added that he looks forward to serving Nigeria in South Africa, which he described as a country with a “remarkable and inspiring history.”
Meanwhile, Mr Fani-Kayode’s posting to South Africa comes amid growing tension of xenophobia and anti-black immigrant campaigns in the country.
The Foreign Minister, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, summoned the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria following the murder of two Nigerian nationals allegedly by officials of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
PREMIUM TIMES reported the violent protests in parts of South Africa targeting African migrants, including Nigerians.
Videos of hostility towards African migrants have been circulated on social media. In some of these, some South Africans were seen holding sticks as they chased and beat Black foreigners, telling them to leave their countries.
Upon resuming his posting, one of Mr Fani-Kayode’s first tasks will likely be addressing the xenophobic violence as it affects the lives and interests of Nigerians in the country.