I’ve No Apology Over My Comments, Do Your Worst Fani-Kayode Tells British Envoy
I’ve No Apology Over My Comments, Do Your Worst Fani-Kayode Tells British Envoy
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Femi Fani-Kayode, has replied the Deputy High Commissioner of the United Kingdom (UK) to Nigeria, Ben Llewellyn-Jones, over visa ban threat following the Commission’s stance on March 18 governorship and state assembly elections.
Femi-Kayode had in a post through his Twitter handle, on Sunday, carpeted the British envoy for mentioning his name in a commentary about the conduct of the election, advising the envoy “to keep his dirty nose out of our internal affairs.”
Meanwhile, in a statement released on March 22, following the election, the British High Commission in Abuja, expressed concern over what it described as “use of inflammatory ethno-religious language by some public and political figures.”
However, in an addendum to his earlier response, Fani-Kayode in a post featuring the image of the British Deputy High Commissioner, described him as a “little Englander.”
He said, “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.
Continuing, the former Aviation Minister stated that he had no apology over his comment as accused by the envoy, adding that he did not take the British Commission seriously.
“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. They cannot tell us how to vote, who to vote for, how to worship, what God to praise, who to marry, who not to marry and which party to support.
“Neither can they threaten us and impose their double standards and godless ‘woke’ and ‘globalist’ values on us.
“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.”
