He played Bwala’s present role in the Presidential Villa 23 years ago as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s spokesman and not only brought the then president’s domestic enemies to their knees but also had a series of very hot exchanges with foreign government officials like America’s Under-Secretary of State for Africa Jendaye Fraser and the White House, over the Charles Taylor issue and Liberia.
In politics, timing is everything. In diplomacy, character is everything. And in moments of national importance, leadership must be entrusted to individuals who possess not only experience but courage, intellect and an unshakable commitment to the nation they represent.
It is for this reason that the appointment of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode as Nigeria’s ambassador to a foreign nation stands out as one of the most consequential diplomatic decisions in recent years.
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Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, better known in the South as “FFK” and in the North as “Sadauki”, is one of the most brilliant, experienced, accomplished, vocal, respected, educated, profound, intellectual, patriotic, disciplined, well-read, historically literate, versatile, forceful, persuasive, sophisticated, cosmopolitan, charming, eloquent, courageous and resilient men in Nigerian politics, and he has paid his dues and proved his worth over the last 35 years in politics and political discourse.
In each role he has played, he has excelled and succeeded even when he was in opposition.
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His friends value him as a great and loyal defender and his traducers and political adversaries fear and respect him because when he goes to war he is utterly relentless, takes no prisoners and literally spits fire.
How I wish it was him who was interviewed by Mehdi Hassan of Al Jazeera and not the young and inexperienced Daniel Bwala, because he would have not only humbled Hassan but also done Nigeria proud.
He played Bwala’s present role in the Presidential Villa 23 years ago as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s spokesman and not only brought the then president’s domestic enemies to their knees but also had a series of very hot exchanges with foreign government officials like America’s Under-Secretary of State for Africa Jendaye Fraser and the White House, over the Charles Taylor issue and Liberia.
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Tinubu’s decision to appoint him as an ambassador of our nation was a wise one because he will fight for and protect the interests of Nigeria and the Nigerian community wherever he goes and will never sell his soul or bow to foreign imperialist interests.
His appointment is not about just rewarding loyalty for the key role he played in Tinubu’s presidential campaign organisation as director of New Media and Special Operations in 2023 and the staunch support he has given the President over the last three years, but also about putting a square peg in a square hole.
If you want to put Nigeria first, Sadauki is the one to do it.
If he runs the Nigerian Mission in the country that he is sent to in the same way he ran the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Aviation when he was minister to each of them, one after the other twenty years ago, he will do very well and both our nation and whichever nation he is posted to itself will benefit from his efforts.
History teaches that diplomacy is most effective when nations deploy individuals who possess both intellect and courage.
As the American statesman Henry Kissinger once noted, “Diplomacy is the art of restraining power.”
To do so successfully requires deep historical awareness and strategic clarity — qualities that have long defined Fani-Kayode’s political career.
Sending a politically seasoned voice like FFK to any nation that is a key partner to Nigeria signals that Bola Ahmed Tinubu intends to strengthen Nigeria’s diplomatic posture with confidence.
Throughout more than three decades in the political arena, Fani-Kayode has remained one of the most resilient and outspoken figures in Nigerian public life despite numerous challenges which would have broken and destroyed lesser men.
Regardless of all that was thrown at him he continues to pull through and come out victorious which is why many refer to him as the “Akanda Eledumare” and the “Ayanfe Oluwa”, which mean “the strange one of God” and “the beloved of the Lord”.
There appears to be a divine dimension to his life that makes him unstoppable and irrepressible even though his enemies are legion.
One wonders what sets him apart and makes him so different.
There is no doubt that his education played a part in it and this set him apart from most.
He never went to school in Nigeria but was educated from the age of eight in England, starting off at Holmewood House School in Kent, one of the UK’s best and most famous preparatory schools, after which he attended the famous Harrow School, just outside London, which is, together with Eton College, an institution that is the exclusive preserve of the high society in the UK, one of the two best private schools in that country, where only the ruling elite, the rich, the well-to-do, the famous and only a tiny proportion of those in British high society, can afford or even qualify to attend.
No less than eight British Prime Ministers, including the great Sir Winston Churchill, and countless British cabinet ministers, attended Harrow and so did many leaders, diplomats and top politicians from many foreign countries.
After finishing at Harrow he attended some of the top universities in the world, including University of London (SOAS) and Cambridge University (Pembroke College), where he did so well.
As a matter of fact, his great grandfather, Reverend Emmanuel Adelabi Kayode, attended Fourah Bay College, which at that time was part of Durham University, and graduated with an MA (Hons.) in Theology in 1893. His grandfather, Justice Adedapo Kayode, attended Cambridge University (Selwyn College), where he studied Law and graduated in 1922. His father, Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode, attended Cambridge University (Downing College), where he studied Law and graduated in 1943. Sadauki himself graduated in Law at Cambridge University (Pembroke College) in 1984, whilst his daughter Folake Fani-Kayode graduated from Durham University in 2009.
No African family has an uninterrupted streak of 116 years of Oxbridge-level university graduates, except for the Fani-Kayode’s, which is something that both his family and every patriotic Nigerian should be proud of.
It therefore makes perfect sense that a man from such a distinguished pedigree and intimidating lineage and that has such an extraordinary intellectual heritage should represent Nigeria on the international stage.
There is also his role in the debate on Gaza, which made him a hero in the eyes of millions of people in the Global South both amongst Christians and Muslims.
He spoke out consistently about what he described as the genocide being committed against the Palestinians and he was prepared to put his life and career on the line for this cause, even though most Nigerian leaders and politicians refused to say what he was saying publicly out of fear of the Zionist lobby and the Jewish state.
His sense of patriotism is unquestionable and nothing reflects this better than his series of essays written against Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the British Opposition Conservative Party and his write up against one Ben Llewelyn-Jones, who at that time was the Deputy British High Commissioner to Nigeria, when the former consistently sought to insult and denigrate Nigeria and the Nigerian people, and the latter attempted to interfere in our internal affairs by making statements in support of Peter Obi and his Obidients in the 2023 presidential election.
Sadauki successfully put them both in their place, and when American Senator Ted Cruz, President Donald Trump, Congressman Tim Riley and other American politicians began to peddle the false narrative and fake gospel of Christian genocide and persecution in Nigeria, Sadauki, a devout Christian himself, rose to the challenge. And, more than any other Nigerian, he wrote about the issue in a series of essays pointing out the fact that as many Muslims were being killed as Christians by the terrorists in our country, and that Christians were not being persecuted by our government and are in fact faring better when it comes to positions in the security apparatus and governance under Tinubu, than they did in the previous administration.
He also spoke out boldly against President Trump and his administration when they accused the Government of South Africa of indulging in genocide against the white minority population in their country and pointed out the fact that South Africa, like Brazil, was a shining example of a successful multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation that was treating its white minority population with the greatest respect. Few Africans said a word to defend South Africa at the time, even though they knew that Trump was wrong, but Sadauki did so without thinking twice.
He is clearly a strong Pan-Africanist and a believer in the importance of the African Union, African solidarity, the BRICS coalition and the Global South alliance comprising China, Russia, South Africa, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other emerging world powers.
This is commendable and it reflects his courage and disdain for those that display ignorance, disdain and contempt for our nation and people and that seek to denigrate and misrepresent us.
Sadauki is not the type that bows and quivers before Westerners like so many other Nigerian leaders and politicians but rather takes pride in his Nigerian culture, race, heritage and identity and is prepared to defend us and speak for us, no matter whose ox is gored and who is involved.
In an increasingly competitive global environment, Nigeria requires diplomats capable not only of negotiation but also of defending national interests with conviction.
If the energy, eloquence and intellectual fire that have defined Fani-Kayode’s political life accompany him to the country to which he has been posted, his tenure may well become one of the most consequential chapters in Nigeria’s modern diplomatic engagements.
I wish him well and I thank God that he is back in the saddle of public office after so many years.
What more could any of us ask of this great and noble son of Nigeria?
This is undoubtedly the quality of personnel and leaders that we need on the international stage.
I hope and pray that in his endeavours and during the course of his work he meets with Mehdi Hasan in a debate and proves to him and the rest of the world that Nigeria still has men who can not only match them but that can also remove their trousers in any verbal encounter. Bwala put us to shame but FFK can redeem us before the eyes of the world.
Mohammed Bello Doka is the publisher of Abuja Network News and can be reached via [email protected].
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