A former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has again tackled the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ben Llewellyn-Jones, after the envoy faulted him on some comments he made during the just-concluded electioneering in Lagos State.
Llewellyn-Jones, speaking on a current affairs programme on Nigerian Info on Sunday, also lamented that the ruling APC had yet to distance itself from the controversial comments made by Fani-Kayode, to which the former aviation minister in a series of tweet on Sunday evening said he wouldn’t be intimidated by a “British civil servant”.
However, in a fresh tweet on Monday morning, Fani-Kayode, who is also a member of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, challenged the British envoy to do his worst, saying he feared no one.
He wrote, “Permit me to add the following addendum to my earlier personal response to the little Englander. I ask, who is this strange little British diplomat who believes he can tell us what Lagos state should be like in terms of ethnic make-up and how it should be run?
He has accused me of hate speech and incitement simply because I said Lagos is not a no man’s land and that the Yoruba ought to be respected in their territory. Well let me say clearly and categorically that I have no apology for saying this and I stand by every word I said. We do not need any lessons from him. Foreign diplomats come to this country to enhance our relationship with theirs and not to give us lectures.
“They are not supposed to interfere in our internal affairs, to be partial, to tell us what to do or to tell us how to do it. They are meant to observe in studied silence and make their concerns and representations, if any, known privately. They cannot get into the political ring of fire.”
He added that foreign diplomats should not tell people who to vote for, how to vote or what God to worship.
Challenging the British envoy to do his worst, Fani-Kayode said, “That strange little bald man with slooping shoulders at the British Embassy has really got a nerve. I will take up this matter formally. His diplomatic immunity is not absolute: it is qualified. He is therefore subject to our laws.
“As for his threats, I challenge him to do his very worst. We are not your slaves. Nigeria is an independent sovereign nation. We are no longer a colony. To hell with him and those that are egging him on and licking his feet. I am FFK: I fear no-one and I bow before no man.”
Continuing he said the hands of the British government were also not clean saying their “strong economy was built on the blood, sweat and tears of Irish, African and Indian slaves.”
“The days of dictation are long gone. What they are trying to do in our country and to our country will not work. Bola Tinubu won a free and fair election and, whether they like it or not, he will be sworn in on May 29th 2023.
“Those that want to impose an ING on our nation and follow it up with a civil war in an attempt to dismember and destroy her shall not prevail. Nigeria shall remain united, shall be at peace, shall flourish, shall we excel and democracy shall be alive and well in our nation for many years to come,” he added.
Recall that the British High Commission had last week said the UK Minister of State for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell MP, was prepared to take action against those who engaged in or incited electoral violence during the just-concluded general elections.
Llewellyn-Jones, yesterday, said the UK was already collating names of perpetrators and would impose sanctions “including preventing people from obtaining UK visas or imposing sanctions under our human rights sanctions regime.”