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The Rage & The Wikileaks Fever
By Femi Fani-Kayode
Newsdiaryonline Sun Sep 11,2011
The fever that is raging in Nigeria today is "wikileaks". Yet as
entertaining as these secret communications are the truth is
that if you believe everything that you read in Julian Assange's
"leaks" then you will believe anything. I say this based on my
own personal experiences. So far I have been fingered twice by
them and in both cases I can assure you that the stories were
fabrications. They simply never happened.
The first story (which was published in an internet magazine
called "Nigerians Abroad" with wikileaks as it's source) claimed
that I had lunch with my father and traditional ruler his Royal
Majesty the Ooni of Ife, his son Prince Tokunboh Sijuwade and
the then American
Ambassador to Nigeria Mr. John Campbell in the Ooni's home in
Lagos and that at that lunch we collectively "begged" the
Americans to support President Olusegun Obasanjo's bid for a
third term in office. Yet the truth is that this NEVER happened.
The four of us NEVER had lunch together in Lagos or anywhere
else at any point in time and we never had any other sort of
meeting throughout the four years that I was in government, let
alone discuss "third term".
If there was ever any meeting between the Ooni of Ife, Tokunboh
Sijuwade and John Campbell I was certainly not there but I
assure you that even if such a meeting between the three of them
ever took place the Ooni of Ife, being one of the most revered
and respected traditional rulers in Nigeria, would never "beg"
anyone for anything, least of all the Ambassador of a foreign
nation. If anyone doubts my assertion that the four of us never
met I challenge them to ask the Ooni himself or Tokunbo Sijuwade.
The second story was that I had a Virgin Nigeria airport manager
beaten up by 6 state security officers when I was Minister of
Aviation because he would not delay a flight for a Presidential
aide.
They also said that I had the Virgin Airlines V1P lounge at
Murtala Mohammed International Airport ransacked by "basebat
wielding" security men because I wanted the lounge closed down.
Again these events NEVER happened. As a matter of fact I was the
one that approved the VIP lounge for Virgin at the international
wing of the airport when I was Minister of Aviation and they
continued to function there smoothly for over a year after I
left office. Yet even though this was all bunkum this ridiculous
story was recently published in a hitherto respected medium like
Rupert Murdoch's Times of London which quoted wikileaks as their
source of information.
I have of course briefed my UK lawyers and I intend to sue the
Times who did not deem it fit to ask for my side of the story
before going to press and publishing this falsehood. They will
now be compelled by a British court of law to prove that these
events actually took place. Again if anyone doubts my assertion
that neither of these two incidents with Virgin EVER
took place when I was Minister of Aviation they should reach Sir
Richard Branson, the Chairman of Virgin or John Adebanjo, his
representative in Nigeria, and ask them. They should also get
the name of the Virgin Airline manager that was allegedly
"beaten up" and tortured by state security operatives on my
orders, get the names and description of the officers that did
the beating, tell us exactly what location, what time, what day,
what month and what year this event took place and finally get
the assaulted and tortured manager himself and the former
Managing Director of Virgin Nigeria to give a press conference
and tell us exactly what happened. The problem is that Nigerians
always like to assume the worst about their leaders but when it
comes to allegations that appear in wikileaks we have to be very
careful and far more circumspect.
This is because simply because an event was reported to have
happened by a low ranking American embassy official, the
Consul-General or the Ambassador himself does not always mean
that it is true. They are human beings as well and not angels
and sometimes they embellish stories, fabricate lies, exaggerate
events, sensationalise discussions or just base their reports on
fake stories and idle gossip that they have been fed by their
desperate, ever-ready and ever-eager to please local informants.
We should stop being so gullible when we are fed these
sensational reports and we should learn to be far more
discerning than we are. Not everything that American diplomats
and spies file and write in their secret reports to Washington
is true. I know this from my own personal experience and the
libellous falsehood that they wrote about me.
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode was the spokesperson to President
Olusegun Obasanjo; he subsequently became Minister of Tourism &
Culture & later served as Aviation Minister for Federal Republic
of Nigeria.
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