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.” (Punch)