February 14, 2009
The recently announced "sack" of Nigeria's ambassador to the US, General Oluwole Rotimi (Rtd) has revealed deep divisions in the team of Nigeria's Supreme Court-imposed president, Umaru Yar'adua. The ambassador, who spoke to Saharareporters briefly about his ordeal, said he is yet to receive any letter of sack from Yar'adua, contrary to a report by Thisday newspaper.When SaharaReporters reached Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, he also refused to speak about the reported sack of the ambassador. Throughout an intense question and answer with Saharareporters, he maintained he was away from Abuja and attending a burial. He directed our reporters to call "the headquarters in Abuja" to find out what is happening.
Diplomatic sources told Saharareporters that Maduekwe was pushing the sack of the ambassador and might have used newspaper reports to pressurize Yar'adua to act upon the decision to sack Oluwole, since it was taking too long. The minister, according to our sources, had reported the Ambassador to Yar'Adua during the swearing-in–ceremony of President Atta Mills in Accra.
Maduekwe reportedly made available to Yar'Adua a letter allegedly written by General Rotimi and circulated widely within the Minister's close-knit circle, including former president Olusegun Obasanjo. In it, the ambassador allegedly claimed to have defeated the Biafran Army while he was "Adjutant –General" in the Nigerian Army, but General Rotimi denies ever writing such a letter.
He told Saharareporters that he was never an "Adjutant General" in the Nigerian Army but a "Quarter-Master-General". Standing his ground, he asked the media to ensure that whomever made the allegation substantiates it. He claimed that as an old man, he has friends across Nigeria and could not afford to put such a divisive statement in a letter to the minister. With Maduekwe refusing to speak about the issue, Saharareporters has not been able to confirm the existence of the letter officially. Our inquiries from one of the Thisday writers of the story did not yield any results: we were directed to speak with the Thisday Saturday editor in Lagos who is supposedly in possession of the letter that is now the subject of an intense ethnic and political debate.
Further investigations by Saharareporters show that although the Minister for Foreign affairs may be using ethnicity to make his point in getting Rotimi recalled, he not exactly a respecter of people of his ethnic origin. Only last year, in a fit of anger, he wrote several letters in which he deployed and redeployed Nigeria's female Charge d'Affaires in Ethiopia, Mrs. Chigozie F. Obi-Nnadozie. He eventually sent her off to Trinidad and Tobago.
Also a US-based Professor, Mobolaji Aluko, told Saharareporters that the minister, while he campaigned for former dictator Sanni Abacha to transmute into a civilian president in 1998, told him that they will have to solve the "Yoruba problem"
Aluko said he still has Maduekwe's "final solution to the Yoruba problem in Nigeria" ringing in his ears since 1998. "Tell him that I said so, and ask him whether I did not confront him with it right there in New York at the Council of Foreign Relations". Abacha died soon after those events and Maduekwe moved to the new power brokers. His search for strong authority brought him to the top of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2007.
Sources say Madukwe may have resented Ambassador Rotimi from the beginning because it was Obasanjo who nominated the ambassador as the former president was reconciling with his successor last year after a prolonged period of frosty relations. Yar'adua's supporters however became concerned that Washington DC was too sensitive to be left in the hands of Obasanjo and his men. As a result, the ambassador was left in the cold over official diplomatic activities and his deputy, Ambassador Wakili, dealt directly with Maduekwe and the presidency.
General Rotimi, Saharareporters learnt, resented having to follow the minister around, on account of his advanced age, especially as Maduekwe has a taste for frequent and prolonged trips to the US. "The minister was notorious for spending weeks in the US just roaming around", a source in the Nigerian embassy told Saharareporters. During the United Nations General Assembly and the recently concluded inauguration of President Obama, Maduekwe spent several days in the US doing nothing in particular. As Nigeria's representative to the General Assembly, he was not allowed to make his presentation until almost everyone had left; even then, it was merely to read the speech of Yar'adua, who could not attend on account of his failing health.
SaharaReporters also learnt that the Federal government sent two delegations to the Obama inauguration from Abuja even though no invitation had been sent to Abuja. Chief Emeka Anyaoku led one delegation while Minister Maduekwe led yet another. Ambassador Rotimi ran into trouble with Maduekwe when he requested that the two teams be merged together for managerial and reception reasons. Maduekwe, who is known to be a highly-egotistical man, refused all entreaties to accept that the older, more experienced Chief Anyaoku lead the two teams. He was also enraged by the refusal of the ambassador to surrender his inauguration tickets to him so that he could lead the Nigerian delegation to the inauguration. But this could not be done because the US Secret Service in Washington D.C. would not substitute or permit an uninvited Foreign Minister in place of an accredited Ambassador.
Both Maduekwe and General Rotimi are close to former president Obasanjo, but as things fell apart between the duo, Maduekwe is said to have portrayed to Yar'adua that General Rotimi is still loyal to the former president as Rotimi had visited Obasanjo while the latter while Obasanjo was at the UN to present his report on the peace mission in the Congo. Coincidentally, Maduekwe himself also met with Obasanjo extensively and reportedly bad-mouthed Yar'adua to Obasanjo, telling the former president that Yar'adua arrives at Federal Executive Meetings (FEC) seated before everyone and doesn't move or speak as such, underscoring the gravity of his sickness.
Saharareporters sources said Yar'adua will likely approve a statement by next week recalling Oluwole, since his hands have now been forced.
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