Saharareporters has obtained confirmation of the “toxic “memo from Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, Rotimi Oluwole, to the Minister for Foreign affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, which has ruptured relations between both men, and led to the sacking of the ambassador. We can also confirm that the Yar'Adua government has completed the recall of Ambassador Oluwole.
"I consider your remarks unwarranted, malicious and untruthful by portraying me as an inept Head of Mission. In all my years of service to Nigeria, I have never been so comprehensively condemned, assaulted and disgraced as demonstrated in your letter. During the Nigeria/Civil war, I served as Quartermaster-General of the Nigerian Army under General Yakubu Gowon and organized the logistic support leading to the comprehensive defeat and surrender of 'Biafran Army' - a ragtag Army of rebels!"
This outburst was apparently in response to a Memo from Maduekwe to Yar'Adua in which the Foreign Minister explored some communications between himself and General Rotimi, including the use of the "rag tag" expression:
"The correspondences between me, as your Minister, and Ambassador Oluwole Rotimi, as your envoy, speak for themselves. The background, Mr. President, is that following the Ambassador's persistent lack of communication with the Ministry, the capacity of my office to provide the necessary leadership in the conduct of our foreign policy in the world's most powerful capital was being undermined.
“That led to the correspondences in question. His response, even as documented in his own hand, exceeds mere insubordination. His memos to me drip with a fundamental contempt for my person and office. The innuendoes and direct insults are so clear that I refrain from dignifying them with contempt."
General Rotimi’s response seems to have been ticked off by a letter written by Maduekwe asking that Ambassador Oluwole Rotimi provide him, in connection with Obama's historic election, with "incisive, unbiased and objective analysis of the unfolding political development in your country of accreditation."
In the body of the letter, Mr. Maduekwe seemed to question the ambassador’s abilities: "I am aware that your mission has a corps of high-ranking and experienced officers whose potentials appear not to have been fully harnessed in this regard.”
Furthermore, the letter was undiplomatically copied to Rotimi's deputy, Ambassador Wakili. That move and the jibes about officers whose potentials were not being “fully harnessed" under Ambassador Oluwole, as well as the suggestion of previous “biased” and unprofessional analyzes from him seemed to have ticked off the former soldier.
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Again SaharaReporters reached out to both men, while Ambassador Oluwole insisted that he was yet to receive his recall letter, we read the snippets of the memo to him asking him to confirm if he wrote such a memo to the minister. He did not confirm or deny it. When we contacted the foreign affairs minister,-Ojo Maduekwe- he claimed that he was at a meeting and directed our reporters to speak with the headquarters of the foreign affairs ministry
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