When Buhari's NSO Director Defended Shagari
Having gone through the article, we were not surprised that it was an edited form of an earlier article titled "Nigeria's Junta is living in constant fear of another coup" written by the same Mr Remde and published in the 16 May, 1984, edition of Die Welt" a West German Newspaper and to which we had since forwarded a rejoinder.
Without recourse to any subjective view on our part it is certainly glaring, going through the article, that Mr Remde is either set to create a mischief or had a personal bone to pick with the person of the Director-General of the Nigerian Security Organisation, Ambassador M. Lawal Rafindadi. However, knowing the antecedents of Mr Remde's journalistic career as we do, we are fully convinced that he has only set out to create a mischief in the minds of the reading public, and has chosen to malign the personality of the Director-General N.S.O., Ambassador M.L. Rafindadi and by so doing whip up some sort of mistrust and an atmosphere of discontent in the leadership of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria amongst your reading public and more especially the Nigerian Community both abroad and at home.
Suffice to say at this juncture that it is on record that Mr Remde has never had anything complimentary to write about Nigeria, Nigerians and the Nigerian Governments. Infact, as Nigeria's Principal Representative to the Federal Republic of Germany, Ambassador Rafindadi was ever brave to counter the several orchestrated smear campaigns mounted by Mr Remde against the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its interests. We are constrained to draw the conclusion that Mr Remde, having been frustrated in realising his devilish intentions by the singular efforts of Ambassador Rafindadi, is only out to have his pound of flesh and at the same time bring into fruition his obsession of creating disaffection within Nigerian leadership. In the article, Mr Remde had been at pains to single out Ambassador Rafindadi as the only Civil Servant in Nigeria who served in a senior capacity in Shagari Government and also serving in an equally senior capacity in the present Military administration in Nigeria, without taking due cognisance of the fact that worldwide, governments come and go but the civil service and its personnel remain.
Mr Remde is no doubt a living witness to the fact that successive governments in the so-called developed countries have retained certain civil servants in the capacities they served under preceding governments knowing fully well by their credentials and capabilities that such civil servants would no doubt excel in the duties entrusted to them. The re-appointment of the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board by the Reagan administration is one of such several instances.
And, coming nearer home, Mr Remde could not pretend to have forgotten so soon the case of a Foreign Minister who overnight and without any moral regards to the electorate switched camp, brought down the government he helped to build only to be re-appointed Foreign Minister by his new mentors.
We would also wish to reiterate for record purposes that the Representational car Mercedes 500 SEL was ordered by this Mission long before Ambassador Rafindadi assumed office in Bonn and this was in replacement to the Mission's eight-year old Mercedes Benz 450 SEL (and not 280 as Mr Remde erroneously claimed in his article). You might also wish to note that the use of the Mercedes Benz 500 SEL as representational car is not limited to the Nigerian Embassy in Bonn alone as claimed by Remde, as it is also the representational car of some other foreign Missions in Bonn. It should also be noted that foreign Missions world wide make use of good quality cars as representational cars for the exclusive use of the Ambassador and sometimes such cars are made bullet-proof as is the case with the Representational car of the West German Ambassador in Nigeria.
Finally, at the risk of repeating ourselves, we make bold to say once again that to have degenerated so low as to question the rationale behind the choice of an Ambassador's representational car and his mode of dressing (which in any case is a matter of an individual's taste) puts Mr Remde in the category of the self glorified illiterate and a pre tender to the membership of the fourth realm of the estate.
Iro Ladan-Baki,
Counsellor/Head of Chancery,
Nigerian Embassy Bonn, West Germany.
