Anti-Igbo threats: Fani-Kayode dares UK to ‘do your worst’, tells envoy ‘to hell with him’

Former Minister of Aviation, and a director at the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode has dared the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Ben Llewellyn-Jones, to do his worst, after the envoy advised him and others in the ruling party to moderate their hate speeches against the Igbo community residing in Lagos.

Fani-Kayode doubled down his attack as he body shamed the UK envoy by referring to him as ‘That strange little bald man with slooping shoulders at the British Embassy,’ in a post via his Twitter handle, Monday morning.

According to Fani-Kayode, the British Deputy High Commissioner ‘cannot tell us how to vote, who to vote for, how to worship, what God to praise, who to marry, who not to marry and which party to support.’

It would be recalled that, last Sunday, the British envoy had reacted to the catalogue of discriminatory remarks credited to some chieftains of the ruling APC who had targeted Igbo residents in Lagos following allegation that they (Igbos) led the the charge by the opposition political parties to secure majority votes during the February 25 Presidential election won in the state by Peter Obi of Labour Party.

The situation escalated with the March 18 governorship and state Assembly elections in the state as thugs targeted the Igbo residents preventing them from voting, violently assaulting them from electing their choice candidate, Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the opposition Labour Party.

Even after the declaration of the incumbent APC governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as re-elected, the attacks against the Igbo did not stop as it was heated up folowing the decision by Peter Obi to challenge the declaration of Tinubu as President-elect by the electoral commission.

Before the March 18 election, Musiliu ‘MC Oluomo’ Akinsanya, a chieftain of the APC, had openly threatened Igbo residents who would not vote for the ruling party to stay indoors, even as the police dismissed the threat as ‘a joke.’

After the election, a Spokesperson for the Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Mr Bayo Onanuga, took to Twitter to demand the total exclusion of Igbo from politics of Lagos, the former political capital city of the country.

Widely condemned for his divisive statement, Onanuga was unrepentant as he restated his threat by describing the Igbo as ‘existential threats to Yorubas,’ as he then followed up with the famous  ‘2023 is the last time (they) interfere in South West politics’ warning.

Onanuga has not relented in his anti-Igbo statements till date. Same with Fani-Kayode and another APC chieftain, Mr Festus Keyamo, the serving Minister of State for Labour and Employment.

Incidentally, these men have planked their argument on an old slogan credited to settler Yoruba indigenes, who had claimed that Yoruba is a no-man’s land,’ a statement which has now been turned on the Igbo residents in the state.

However reacting to the trend of anti-Igbo statements, the British envoy while featuring on a live radio show in Lagos, Sunday, condemned the trend of speeches targeted at a particular ethnic community in the state, as he advised against ethnic profiling, while stressing that ‘the strength of Lagos is its diversity as Nigeria’s cosmopolitan city.’

While berating the level of destruction and disenfranchisement of Igbos in Lagos during the just concluded governorship election held on March 18, the envoy also encouraged the purveyors of these ethnic profiling to take a cue from other climes where diversity has improved their societies.

“People chanting anti-Igbo messages and walking on the streets by polling units on election day is totally unacceptable. Not just in Lagos, but also in Enugu and Rivers where we had our teams as well and many other places,” Ben Llewellyn-Jones, British deputy high commissioner to Nigeria, said.

Mr Llewellyn-Jones, in an interview with Nigeria Info FM on Sunday, said the strength of Lagos is its diversity as Nigeria’s cosmopolitan city.

“Why is it that people who pay taxes, who work, who provide teachers, who build businesses, who create jobs, who live in Lagos, who happen to be from a different ethnicity to some other people are not Lagosians? Of course, they are.

“The strength of Lagos is its diversity, and if Lagos can’t be that kind of cosmopolitan melting pot of culture and language and all the things it should be, then really how is Lagos going to succeed?

“If you live in London, you are a Londoner, a British-Pakistan is a Londoner. The British Prime Minister lives in London. My boss, the British foreign Secretary, is clearly British-Sierra Leone and lives in London, they are Londoners,” Mr Llewellyn-Jones said.

Meanwhile, reacting to the British envoy’s advice, Monday, via his Twitter handle (@realFFK), Fani-Kayode blasted the UK deputy high commissioner for meddling, insisting that ‘They are not supposed to interfere in our internal affairs, to be partial, to tell us what to do or to tell us how to do it. They are meant to observe in studied silence and make their concerns and representations, if any, known privately.’

Fani-Kayode then challenged the envoy ‘to do his very worst. We are not your slaves. Nigeria is an independent sovereign nation. We are no longer a colony. To hell with him and those that are egging him on and licking his feet.’

“Permit me to add the following addendum to my earlier personal response to the little Englander.

“I ask, who is this strange little British diplomat who believes he can tell us what Lagos state should be like in terms of ethnic make-up and how it should be run?

“He has accused me of hate speech and incitement simply because I said Lagos is not a no man’s land and that the Yoruba ought to be respected in their territory.

“Well let me say clearly and categorically that I have no apology for saying this and I stand by every word I said.

“We do not need any lessons from him.

“Foreign diplomats come to this country to enhance our relationship with theirs and not to give us lectures.

“They are not supposed to interfere in our internal affairs, to be partial, to tell us what to do or to tell us how to do it.

“They are meant to observe in studied silence and make their concerns and representations, if any, known privately.

“They cannot get into the political ring of fire. They cannot tell us how to vote, who to vote for, how to worship, what God to praise, who to marry, who not to marry and which party to support.

“Neither can they threaten us and impose their double standards and godless ‘woke’ and ‘globalist’ values on us.

“That strange little bald man with slooping shoulders at the British Embassy has really got a nerve.

“I will take up this matter formally. His diplomatic  immunity is not absolute: it is qualified. He is therefore subject to our laws.

“As for his threats, I challenge him to do his very worst. We are not your slaves. Nigeria is an independent sovereign nation. We are no longer a colony.

“To hell with him and those that are egging him on and licking his feet.

“I am FFK: I fear no-one and I bow before no man.

“Until his Government hands Tony Blair and others over to the ICC at the Hague for crimes against humanity and war crimes commited in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia and apologises for the the over one hundred years of unspeakable atrocities committed against the people of Africa, India, China, Indo- China, Asia-minor, the West Indies and indeed all her former colonies, I will NEVER take the British seriously or at their word.

“Millions were slaughtered and enslaved under their brutal yoke whilst their strong economy was built on the blood, sweat and tears of Irish, African and Indian slaves.

“Despite that they have offered no apology or paid any reparations for their evil yet they insist on imposing a system of indirect rule over us.

“Who is the fool here? The days of dictation are long gone. What they are trying to do in our country and to our country will not work.

“Bola Tinubu won a free and fair election and, whether they like it or not, he will be sworn in on May 29th 2023.

“Those that want to impose an ING on our nation and follow it up with a civil war in an attempt to dismember and destroy her shall not prevail.

“Nigeria shall remain united, shall be at peace, shall flourish, shall we excel and democracy shall be alive and well in our nation for many years to come.

“(FFK),” he tweet.

The UK and United States have condemned violence and voter intimidation that marred the March 18 election across the country, threatening sanctions against political actors responsible for it.

While the U.S said it has identified up to 10 persons who allegedly participated in the violence, the UK on its part, has condemned the anti-democratic acts of politicians in the 2023 General Elections.