Of Nigeria’s faces in Spain and the UK -By Tunji Ajibade

President Goodluck Jonathan travelled to London on December 28, 2014. His trip had reminded one of the High Commission to the United Kingdom, making one fancy that the President might have gone to give Nigeria’s High Commissioner, Dr Dalhatu Tafida, a handshake. Well, it happened that a day before the trip, Tafida gave his scorecard for 2014 in London and this writer took note. One wouldn’t have been surprised then if the President dropped by at the Nigerian House because Tafida had said there was an increase in the trade volume between Nigeria and the UK and that it was traceable to the policies of the Jonathan administration. Anyway, not many of Nigeria’s ambassadors abroad present scorecards. The matter reminds one of another face of Nigeria in Spain. It happened that the ambassador, Madam Bianca Ojukwu, presented her scorecard back in November in which she listed what was achieved during her tenure in that country. It can’t be hidden when an administrator has passion for what he or she is given to do. That time one couldn’t escape from the thought that Madam Ojukwu went to her post with a yearning to achieve. Now, a yearning to achieve at one’s duty post is where this piece is heading for. For this writer is ever eager to know and celebrate Nigerians that win wherever they are posted. It’s because when they win, Nigeria wins, and Nigerians score big. And the point can’t be missed that such, in their own corners, are doing what the Super Eagles sometimes do that makes President Jonathan love them with a passion.

Back in November, Madam Ojukwu hosted an event in Madrid. It was obvious that it wasn’t an event just to wine and dine, but where she could present her scorecard. There’s something to note about officials who present scorecards. It means they are ready to hear Nigerians express their views; and Nigerians don’t ever shy away from expressing their views about what their officials do, or don’t do. What Mrs. Ojukwu said when she took to the podium to state what had been achieved wasn’t short of what this writer had thought of her. She had always appeared as a woman determined to make whatever she touched work, including her marriage to the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. Not many gave the marriage a chance when she resigned as the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria and married the man she loved. But it did work, and as far as this writer is concerned, if a marriage works, clap for the woman, for her patience, for her understanding and for good sense to take her marriage as a project that must not fail no matter what happens. Madam Ojukwu showed this and much more in 2010 on the steps of the Government House, Umuahia, Abia State, as she stood beside her husband.

Out there in Umuahia to cover the event, this writer had stood opposite Madam Ojukwu, her husband, Chief Victor Umeh, and Governor Theodore Orji who at that time was leaving his political party for the All Progressive Grand Alliance. The entire visit by the Ojukwus to Umahia had been to receive Orji into APGA, and one had watched as Madam Ojukwu got her husband ready for the photo session. She was all smile, she was patient, and the great man had listened to her whispers and did whatever his wife suggested, (he even cracked a joke about it that got guests and journalists laughing), and one had concluded at that moment that this was an extraordinary woman of great virtue. Public profiles of former beauty queens hardly tally with that, but hers did.

She remains a surprise to this writer who thinks she’s worthy of where the President posted her as Nigeria’s ambassador, not just for the simple reason that she was an uncommon woman devoted to the man she chose in life, but because at her post in Madrid, she had presented a list of achievements that are beneficial to Nigeria.

The event, Madam Ojukwu had said, “gave us the opportunity to highlight our culture.” In fact, a traditional ruler was taken to Madrid to show foreign guests how the act of “breaking of kola” is carried out back home. There were performances by Nigerian dance groups among other things. But the ambassador also used the occasion to mention the negatives that have turned positive since she arrived in Madrid in 2010. The number of deportation of Nigerians was high, but it’s been substantially reduced. Spain has been made to abide by immigration rules, and children and mothers are no longer deported. If for any reason any Nigerian with investment in Spain is to be deported, such a person is allowed to take care of it prior to deportation. Profiling of Nigerians has reduced, Madam Ojukwu had said. She enthused about how Spanish fashion world is interested in Nigerian fashion, another good point that this writer noticed; for if pursued vigorously, it’s a means of spreading the Nigerian culture, of improving the economic well-being of the Nigerians in that industry, and a means of using cultural diplomacy to make stronger the relations between Nigeria and Spain. This is more so because Spain is strong on cultural matters in Nigeria; what with the embassy here organising a grand cultural event in Abuja in December 2014. It’s been like that over the years, with the embassy organising in 2010 a national fiction writing contest meant to call attention to Spain which this writer won. So, it was gratifying that time, last September, when Ojukwu said, “Nigeria has signed a lot of Memoranda of Understanding with Spain on various areas, cultural cooperation, education as well as transport and infrastructure.” The entire event in Madrid was tied to the apron of the centenary celebration back home, and just as Tafida did in London, Madam Ojukwu referred to President Jonathan as the one who had done all that was needed to ensure that Nigeria’s diplomacy was conducted in a good atmosphere in Madrid. This good atmosphere has become a thing of pride to Nigerians in Spain where, as she put it, the dedication of embassy staff to duty has been seen and appreciated by all. It’s a testimony one wants to hear from other missions that the nation has across the globe.

Madam Ojukwu spoke about more foreign direct investment into the Nigerian economy when she listed her achievements in November. That should have sounded like something impossible at this time that Europe has its economic challenges. Spain isn’t left out. The country is going through recession and there are few jobs for citizens. It’s worse for foreigners, Nigerians among them. Many of them suffer, and those in the construction industry have been worse hit. As she admitted, Nigerian officials at the embassy try to rehabilitate the affected and get them in touch with their families back home. Spain isn’t the haven that it used to be, she had said. She was right about that because the burst of a housing-market bubble in 2008 was an indication of how hard the global economic crisis had affected Spain. Growth remains low even though Spain seems to have come out of its double-dip recession in 2013. The country’s increasing unemployment rate is 27 per cent, and youth unemployment stands at an estimated 55 per cent. That is the same Spain about which Madam Ojukwu once commented that many Nigerians board ships to go to and “on their way, they get drowned.”

It’s regrettable that Nigerians are forced to go through so much trouble. But if she, from the same Spain, could draw FDI to a Nigeria that should be better off if its resources were better managed, this writer states that the ambassador is doing nothing short of magic. Left to some other ambassadors, excuses that things were bad in Spain would have been given. For this writer, when Tafida also said trade flow between Nigeria and the UK increased in 2014, in spite of the tough season that the latter is also going through, the two faces of Nigeria fall into the category of achievers. Nigeria’s faces such as these should be applauded and encouraged.