For the past couple of weeks, the world's pastime has been Wiki Leaks. What new embarrassing comment did another US official make about the head of state of Vanuatu, or the defense minister of Lichtenstein; and what did the Sultan of Bahrain tell Hilary Clinton about the Nigerian president...real gripping stuff that diplomatic etiquette suppresses from reaching the global public squares. That is Wiki Leaks brand of whistle-blowing.
But when it comes to Nigerian government officials, forget about secrecy, or confidential memos. Nigerians don't deal in diplomatese. Left to them alone, Mr. Assange would still be some anonymous journalist from the Land Down Under, or just out of work. Take for instance the incident that happened during the just ended Achebe Colloquium at Brown University. During one of the panel discussions involving Mr. John Campbell, former US ambassador to Nigeria, and the current Nigerian ambassador to the US, Mr Adefuye, the Nigerian diplomat did not wait until he got back to his office to gossip about his feelings for the irreverent American who was going on and on with statistics about looted Nigerian funds (the kind of stuff corrupt folks in my dear country don't want to hear, anyway). He just simply announced to everyone in the room and all others watching realtime on the internet that: “I will deal with him [Campbell]... With friends like him, Nigeria does not need any enemies. We shall confront him in the next section and by the time we finish with him, he will see that Nigeria is not on the brink.”
This is not Wiki Leaks. Read Saharareporters account of the event here.
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