Tomorrow morning in London, England, the "No-passport" policy-reversal order given by Yar'Adua last week will be put to the test. That is when Mr. Nasir El-Rufai will walk in through the doors of the Nigerian High Commission to update his travel documents. He had previously been denied that right.
And members of the Nigeria Liberty Forum (NLF), the same group that was behind an effective telephone strategy by which Nigerians chased Attorney-General Michael Aondoakaa out of London a few weeks ago, say they will be on hand to witness the event.
The former minister for Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory arrived in London last weekend from Dubai, UAE to renew his passport, which has run out of space for visas. Members of the NLF said they will confirm if the passport was actually renewed. Mr. Kayode Ogundamisi, the convener of the group told Saharareporters that as a human rights gesture, a team would accompany Mr. El-Rufai to the High Commission to verify the renewal of his passport. They are expected to be at the consulate at 10 : 00 AM on Tuesday morning.
Yar'Adua's reversal of an order from the "highest levels" of Nigeria's government led to the dismissal of the Director-General of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mr. Emmanuel Enarune Imohe, which had sent the order to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in the first place.
Yar'Adua has completely denied authorship of the policy, stressing in his policy-reversal order that a passport is the constitutional right of every Nigerian. As part of the policy-reversal, however, Ambassador Joe Keshi, who implemented the internationally-embarrassing order, had advised that the better option was to "generally ignore [El-Rufai], monitor his movement and where necessary respond without delay to his more stringent comment."
While the government did not respond to the former minister's widely-published "My Grouse With Yar'Adua" article published at the weekend, it remains to be seen whether it will "monitor" his movement, and what it will do about it. Mr. El-Rufai has repeatedly stated that he will visit Nigeria shortly. In that event, his personal security may well become a federal challenge.
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