DECEPTIVE people love fake news because it makes their reality seem legitimate. Fake news don’t last. Good journalism does. According to Walter Lippmann, a renowned American journalist, “There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.” Unfortunately, today, journalism in this part of the world suffers the affliction of rapscallions; practitioners embodying the character of professionals without discipline, parade themselves as Nigeria’s Fourth Estate of the realm. From their misdeeds, however, it is clear how cruelly the pen manifests more than the sword. On their watch, a cruel story runs on wheels, and their misshapen whim and sullied hands oil the wheels as they run. Whatever the tenor of justification advanced by them for their malpractices, it would never hold before the beaming brightness of good. Just recently, the social space became rife with fake news published and circulated on a despicable blog about the Nigerian Embassy in Spain. The article recounted in fantastic measures how the ambassador, Mr. Demola Seriki, was doing his best to live as good a life as possible in Spain. The ambassador was accused of turning himself into a small deity, driving a posh vehicle, threatening his local (Nigerian) staff with forced retirement every time things didn’t go his way; and more.
The author of the fake news in the article claimed even further that Seriki had already fired seven of his staff, consequently offering up Nigeria to be mocked by the Spaniards. This angry allegations painted Seriki in the flame-red colours of a devil. Seriki clapped back at the article, chalking it up to the work of disgruntled staff who were not impressed with the shaking up he did when he arrived at his duty post in Spain. Did he own and drive a Range Rover in Spain as the article claimed? Yes. However, he brought the vehicle from Nigeria, having paid for it with his own money, not looting the government’s coffers. And he did this because there was no representative car when he arrived in Spain. The ambassador also stated that the total number of staff at the Nigerian outpost in Spain was supposed to be 15. Somehow, that number had increased to 25. So, to save Nigeria some cash, Seriki opted to remove the redundant staff. He even offered them opportunities with similarly capped monetary returns. But they refused. So there we are, a case of blackmail against an ambassador that is perhaps doing his job? Time will tell.
The ambassador also described as vacuous, vicious, and vile an attempt by a faceless blog to blackmail him and rubbish his stewardship in the European mission. The blogger alleged that the ambassador lives a high-profile lifestyle because he drives a Range Rover Jeep; threatens to sack local staff who refuse his provisional job offer; and had sacked seven of them as at the last count, among other allegations. But in a chat with a media outfit, the Ambassador described the allegations as brazen lies concocted by a disgruntled set of staff that is averse to the change and restructuring he has brought to bear on the embassy. On the issue of his car, Ambassador Seriki disclosed that when he got to Madrid, there was no representational car, which necessitated having to bring his own car from Nigeria. He said, “Unlike other public officials who would have used the embassy’s money to buy an official car, I brought my personal Range Rover from Nigeria for use at no expense to the Nigerian government or the embassy. I brought my car to give respect to my country. I am allowed to bring my car. Where is the crime in that?”
With a single-minded vision to enhance the interest of Nigeria in Spain and pursue the overall protection of Nigerians there, Ambassador Seriki rued the allegation that he was arbitrarily sacking local staff who refused to accept his offer of a contract position instead of the old practice of a permanent job offer that had resulted in a bloated workforce. Indeed, he said that there is a benchmark for how many local staff can be employed but that previous ambassadors had abused the process by employing and turning into permanent staff their personal aides. “Every diplomat before me employed an additional staff for the embassy before exiting. Most times, the persons are their relatives or loyalists. Our staffing ceiling is supposed to be 15 but as we speak, our local staffers are 25. Even after these ambassadors had completed their mission or were redeployed, you would found out that they left behind these aides that they had surreptitiously and illegally integrated into the system,” he said, lamenting further that whereas the salary of staff is very high, inflow is low.”
He added that there was no way the mission could continue to pay salaries without sanitising the place by weeding out the redundant staff. Thus, the former Minister of State for Defence said that he had to fashion out a new way of doing things by offering provisional appointments of one year that is “subject to renewal based on general conduct in the execution of your official duties as assigned by the Head of Mission.” The ambassador continued: “I generously made them the offer to accept the yearly renewable appointment which is the position of the Federal Government of Nigeria and still maintain their jobs in addition to paying the up-to-date entitlements and the 13th month salary but they refused. The present permanent position they have is exposing Nigeria to almost 400,000 Euro which is their preference but if we don’t desist from this practice, we will surge to almost 1,000,000 Euro in five years because of the Spanish labour laws.”
Seriki, who shares a strong leaning towards developing robust bilateral and private trade relations between Nigeria and the Kingdom of Spain, said that contrary to the bilious article, he would never do anything to contravene the labour law of the country.
- Thompson writes in from Madrid, Spain via moyomoyo441@yahoo.com
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