Politics
BISI Olawunmi, a Mass Communication Scholar and Public affairs analyst, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be wary of foreign do-gooders and self-promoting lobbyists, who may seek to impose a foreign agenda on his administration, through the backdoor.
Olawunmi gave the advice in a press statement on Thursday, June 8, 2023, against the backdrop of the aggressive lobbying of the Tinubu Presidency by former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who visited the then President-elect, Tinubu, on May 23, 2023 at Defence House, Abuja, ahead of his May 29, 2023 inauguration.
According to the statement, although Nigeria is facing serious challenges and needing all the assistance it could get, the situation is not that hopeless such that the Tinubu Presidency will project its leadership, perhaps inadvertently, as ready to lie prostrate before some foreign do-gooders posturing as being on a rescue mission to the nation.
Olawunmi, who is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, and a former Washington-based foreign correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, pointed out that Blair had also been featured as a guest speaker at the induction of new and returning governors, organized by the federal government in Abuja, inciting the extent of his in-road into the Nigerian government.
Olawunmi noted that Blair’s antecedents of imperial, condescending relationship with African countries should not be lost on the new administration, which may erroneously see a ‘Tony Blair’ publicly flaunted relationship as a foreign legitimacy reinforcement strategy.
He also recalled that as British Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, Blair, bent on perpetuating British imperial hegemony on Zimbabwe, had relentlessly waged economic, political and diplomatic war against Zimbabwe when he failed to pressure President Robert Mugabe into abandoning the programme of returning lands appropriated by the tiny minority of White Settlers to native Zimbabweans.
According to the statement, made available to Realnews, Blair, founder of Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, who was received by Tinubu, in company of then Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima and House Speaker, Femi Obajabiamila, now Chief of Staff to the President, among others, had proposed to help the new administration in actualizing its priorities. Blair had pledged: “We would like to help in any way with your administration in response to which Tinubu had enthused about how Nigeria can benefit from the amazing work of the Institute”
“A picture of Tony Blair at that May 23, 2023 meeting with Tinubu, Shettima and Gbajabiamila, the three most powerful leaders in the new Nigerian government, was prominently displayed on the front pages of many newspapers, including “The Nation’ and the Nigerian Tribune’ on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, giving public testimony to what he considered as underserved cheap access and reverence accorded the former British Prime Minister. He had wondered which office – Tinubu’s Media office or Tony Blair Institute – promoted the publication of that picture in the media.”
The former Washington based foreign correspondent of NAN also referred the Tinubu Presidency to the sales pitch of Boris Johnson, another former British Prime Minister, who as guest speaker at the 16th Osigwe Anyiam Osigwe Lecture series on March 27, 2023, in Lagos, had urged Nigeria to tap into the expertise he gained in mass transportation as Mayor of London and other experiences as prime minister.
He stressed, that Nigeria, must not be seen as offering itself as a cheap financial rehabilitation home for retired British Prime Ministers.
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Tags: Adeleke University Bisi Olawunmi Boris Johnson Femi Obajabiamila Kashim Shettima President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Robert Mugabe Tony Blair
