A mass communication scholar, Dr. Bisi Olawunmi, has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be wary of foreign do-gooders and self-promoting lobbyists who may seek to impose a foreign agenda on his administration, through the backdoor…..CONTINUE READING...CONTINUE READING
Dr. Olawunmi gave the advice in a statement on Thursday against the backdrop of the aggressive lobbying of the Tinubu presidency by former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, who visited the then President-elect, Tinubu, on May 23, 2023, at Defence House, Abuja, ahead of his May 29, 2023 inauguration.
Mr. Blair, founder of Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, who was received by Tinubu, in company of then Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima and House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, now Chief of Staff to the President, among others, had proposed to help the new administration in actualizing its priorities.
Blair had pledged: “We would like to help in any way with your administration”, in response to which Tinubu had enthused about how Nigeria can benefit from the “amazing work of the Institute”.
Dr. Olawunmi noted that a picture of Tony Blair at that May 23, 2023 meeting with Tinubu, Shettima and Gbajabiamila was prominently displayed on the front pages of many newspapers, giving public testimony to what he considered as underserved cheap access and reverence accorded the former British Prime Minister.
He had wondered which office – Tinubu’s Media office or Tony Blair Institute – promoted the publication of that picture in the media.
Dr. Olawunmi, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, pointed out that Mr. Blair had also been featured as a guest speaker at the induction of new and returning governors organized by the government in Abuja, indicating the extent of his in-road into the Nigerian government.
Cautioning the Tinubu presidency against being sold a bogey, Dr. Olawunmi stated that Mr. Blair’s antecedents of imperial, condescending relationship with African countries should not be lost on the new administration which may erroneously see a Tony Blair publicly flaunted relationship as a foreign legitimacy reinforcement strategy.
He recalled that as British Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, Mr. Blair bent on perpetuating British imperial hegemony on Zimbabwe, had relentlessly waged economic, political and diplomatic war against Zimbabwe when he failed to pressure President Robert Mugabe into abandoning the programme of returning lands appropriated by the tiny minority of white settlers to native Zimbabweans.
Dr. Olawunmi, a former Washington, D.C. based foreign correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), also adverted the Tinubu presidency to the sales pitch of another former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who as guest speaker at the 16th Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Lecture series on March 27, 2023, in Lagos, had urged Nigeria to tap into the expertise he gained in mass transportation as Mayor of London and other experiences as prime minister.
Dr. Olawunmi conceded that Nigeria is facing serious challenges and needing all the assistance it could get, but contended that the situation is not that hopeless such that the Tinubu presidency will project its leadership, perhaps inadvertently, as ready to lie prostrate before some foreign do-gooders posturing as being on a rescue mission to the nation.
Nigeria, he stressed, must not be seen as offering itself as a cheap financial rehabilitation home for retired British Prime Ministers…..CONTINUE READING
