In this concluding part of the Saturday Sun’s interview with the immediate past Nigerian High Commissioner to the Unit-ed Kingdom, Ambassador Dalhatu Tafida, the former Senate Leader has sensationally revealed that former President Goodluck Jonathan never asked the United Kingdom for assistance in a bid to rescue the Chibok girls. The Director-General of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Council in 2011, also said the former president disregarded existing, known diplomatic protocol in Nigeria’s relationship with the United Kingdom while he held sway as the High Commissioner. Tafida’s claim tallied with a recent statement by former UK Prime Minister, David Cameroun, who said President Jonathan refused to grant the British government approval to secure the release of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014. The ex-president had since refuted the claim saying he even wrote Prime Minister Cameroun seeking for help but was ignored. Ambassador Ta- fida who was the Nigerian High Commis- sioner to UK at the time has now put a lie to Mr. Jonathan’s claim.
Tafida said: “You know, let me tell you one thing again about the weakness of governments in Nigeria. Whether the government in Nigeria was talking to the UK government or not, we did not know. We were only getting sometimes, information from the High Commission of UK in Nigeria. And that is upside down. So, when last time Jonathan was complaining that UK did not give anything on so, so, so, so, we didn’t know. We cannot defend you be- cause we were not involved.”
“If we were involved for instance, please, the so, so, so, so, the government, or this is a letter we have written or the president has written, please take it to the ministry called Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that of course is meant for the prime minister. It was never done. They usually did it upside down. They will usually give the letter, if there was any… So, you could see the man who was here said there was no authority. And there, we didn’t see anything.”
Prodded further on if that was not a breach of protocol on the part of the for- mer president, Tafida said: “Totally, total- ly! You know, some leaders think a white man is everything. So, whatever he says, even to approach him, maybe, you begin to kneel down before you get to him. But unfortunately, that was what happened.”
Tafida also gave account of the botched third term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo which took place while he occupied the position of the Senate Leader in the National Assembly. He spoke further on this and more with AIDOGHIE PAULINUS, in Abuja. However, when asked to respond to the allegations made by Dr Dalhatu Tafida, spokesman to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr Ikechukwu Eze said he would only react when he has read the interview. “I cannot react now. I would need to read the interview to know the issues before I would know whether we would react or not.”
Your Excellency, what was your high point as Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom?
When I got there, first of all, I was ner- vous. I am not a career diplomat, but I have a lot of experience in my own way because I have been a civil servant up to the highest level, up to the perm sec. So, I know how to run people. When I got there, I made sure I wanted to make use of the people I found there. And I know the bad things and the good things because my eyes could see. So, I sat down. First, we must have the resources. I was able to get some resources. Then, we must have the people, the correct people to do the jobs all over whether it is structural, whether ad- ministrative or whatever. And we got the people to do these things. And I am quite pleased to say that I am also the longest serving high commissioner in UK. We did the best that in all structures belonging to the high commission, that there was none that we did not touch, we did not renovate. There is nothing.
We also structured the immigration section of the high commission to the extent that even the Ministry of Interior was going to follow the example of what we were doing. I know General Obasanjo was there and he was amazed at what we were able to do, what we were able to achieve. There was a day we were able to attend to up to 400 Nigerians in terms of passport and visa. And we made sure that my eyes were on that section because it is the very volatile part of the high commission. My eyes were on that section almost everyday. I could see them on my laptop; I could see what each section was doing and so on. And I was also lucky to get an officer from the Immigration now promoted to Assistant Comptroller General, one Aminu. He was an honest man, very honest. I put a lot of traps on his way to see whether he would be involved in what was happen- ing, but I never succeeded in capturing him. But my own trap, the trap I put one day, caught somebody and that person was returned home for trying to do something, giving a passport.
He collected money?
Of course! He was giving a passport and would not follow the normal process. You know you must pay online to get a passport and follow through the process.
And he was circumventing the process?
Not circumventing. If it is just circumventing or doing the process properly, that is a different thing. He was not paying and the fellow was to be given a passport because he was conniving with people on the server here. So, I was able to catch him and send him home. So, I did so many things that I felt I am satisfied. And if you go to London today and ask, who is the best high commissioner you ever had, whether old or young, they will tell you their own opinion. And I was also very, I think, innovative. The Diasporas, the associations of Nigerians in the UK were my partners in progress. We took decisions with them. All the renovations, all the amendments we made, all the services we rendered, we did in partnership with them. So, I am satisfied with what I did in UK. There was never, as far as I know, a complaint either in the newspaper or television about what we did in London.
At the time you were high commis- sioner in the United Kingdom, the abduction of the Chibok girls took place. What assistance did the United Kingdom offer Nigeria? And was it enough?
You know, let me tell you one thing again about the weakness of governments in Nigeria. Whether the government in Nigeria was talking to the UK government or not, we did not know. We were only get- ting sometimes, information from the High Commission of UK in Nigeria. And that is upside down. So, when last time Jonathan was complaining that UK did not give anything on so, so, so, so, we didn’t know. We cannot defend him because we were not involved.
Andrew Pocock, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria at the time the incident took place, alleged later that the Chibok girls were sighted around a tree in the Sambisa forest by US and British surveillance officials immedi- ately they were kidnapped, but could not do anything because the Jonathan’s government did not ask for help...
(Cuts in) My comment initially was what brought about this. If we were involved for instance, please, the so, so, so, so, the gov- ernment, or this is a letter we have written or the president has written, please take it to the ministry called Foreign and Com- monwealth Office, that of course is meant for the prime minister. It was never done. They usually did it upside down. They will usually give the letter, if there was any… So, you could see the man who was here said there was no authority. And there, we didn’t see anything. I hope you understand my comment?
So it was a breach of protocol?
Totally, totally! You know, some leaders think a white man is everything. So, whatever he says, even to approach him, maybe, you begin to kneel down before you get to him. But unfortunately, that was what happened.
We cannot end this interview without discussing the issue of third term, which can also not be discussed without a men- tion of your name. To what extent was your role in that attempt to amend the constitution to allow a third term for ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo?
Well, as you know, during that time, I was the majority leader. Naturally, I was also the leader of the party in the Senate. And obviously, the party, the PDP, ap- proached me and told me what they want- ed. We started to size the views of senators. We realised that most of the senators were not in tune with that idea. But we said, let’s amend the constitution, let’s amend the simple, less controversial aspect of the constitution. Somehow, we took that decision, the leadership of the Senate and the House of Reps, but the Presidency said no, they wanted us to amend everything at the same time. We said it is not going to work, it is not easy. But somehow, the president had his own advisers in terms of legal. We were there, we also had our own advisers. We insisted that we wanted to go step by step, taking the non controversial part of the amendment to pass and forget about tenure elongation. But it was not agreed. And we started and it didn’t even fly at all. It didn’t even leave the ground.
Can we say bad advisers made the third term bid to fail?
Maybe we would have gotten something out of the constitution amendment and not the aspect of the third term because our aim was to look at those areas that were being amended by the National Assembly after us without the third term. But it wasn’t agreed. The party did not agree, they underrated the power of the National Assembly and we were more or less forced to take the constitution amendment, the whole of it which is a book in itself. But it didn’t fly.
It was alleged that money changed hands at that time. Do you have idea of how much?
Well, I wouldn’t know. I heard because you know…
You were not involved?
Noooooo! I was the Leader of the Sen- ate. Normally, the presidency had its own contacts in the Senate; both chambers, not the principal officers or the leader. I was not the contact or this thing at all. But I was told there was going to be money.
And you never received?
Nobody gave me any money.
From your experience as a medical doctor, what can the nation do to stop medical tourism?
Very little. Why? I am being honest with you. Nigeria is a country that is a free nation where you can do anything. If you have money, you can fly to Moscow and get treatment, you can fly to UK or wherever if you have your own money. Medical tourism, it is not necessarily the government officials that are going for medical tourism. Of course they also do. So, unless we are going to change our con- stitution into a totalitarian regime whereby everybody could be barred from travelling abroad for medical attention. Well, then, otherwise, everybody is free to travel abroad for medical treatment. And even in England, people leave UK to go to America for medical treatment. And that is how it is. People leave England to go to France, people leave France to go to England for medicals because they are free nations.
So, it is something that is not abnormal?
It is not obtainable now and I don’t think even when we reach our optimal development, it cannot happen. It cannot stop people from going abroad.