Ethnic Profiling In Lagos Will Impede Its Growth, Chides Fani-Kayode – UK Envoy
The United Kingdom on Sunday said that the ethnic profiling witnessed in Lagos State before and during the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections would only impede the growth of Lagos as a mega city.
It said many mega cities around the world have recorded huge strides because of their diversity of human capital, noting that the strength and beauty of Lagos lie in its blend of culture and religion and should be recognised as a cosmopolitan city.
Ben Llewellyn-Jones, British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, said these in an interview with Nigeria Info FM.
It would be recalled that days to the Lagos State Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections witnessed divisive statements and ethnic slurs on and off social media.
The division and ethnic profiling reached a crescendo when voters of South-East extraction were attacked in some parts of Lagos during the governorship polls.
“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,” Llewellyn-Jones said.
“Why is it that people who pay taxes, who work, who provide teachers, who built 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?
“People chanting anti-Igbo messages and walking on the streets by polling units on elections day is totally unacceptable. Not just in Lagos, but also in Enugu and Rivers were we had our teams as well and many other places.
“It was a very much tougher day for voters which shouldn’t be. But we saw people vote in spite of that, which is truly impressive about the elections.
“I think the right question to people who have been driving these ethnic kind of languages would be, when you go to cities around the world like London, what do you see when you see the success of those places? Because the success of those places are not built upon division but upon unity.
“I think that people who are still using that kind of language should stop, and the party they represent should be saying to them ‘stop now, this is not in our name and you are wrong’”, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria said.
Llewellyn-Jones also expressed displeasure over controversial comments made by Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation and APC Presidential Campaign Council’s Director of New Media.
“Yes, let’s be specific, there were some people, like Femi Fani-Kayode, what is he saying and why is he saying it? I don’t understand.
“It is wrong from my perspective that he will speak on behalf of a party and that party does not distance itself from him and say stop doing that. It is wrong to say that.
“To me it is really important, people who have said I am part of a party’s press and media campaign, well, the party itself should say no you are not, and you should stop and we do not agree. I know that some leaders very clearly said we are about unity, and that is good, I encourage that.
“The problem is if you get the other people over here, who are very clearly associated with the party and giving you another message, and there isn’t any kind of calling out of that. What would you take from that as a voter?
Llewellyn-Jones reiterated the issue of UK visa ban threat to those undermining democracy, noting that about some persons were on the growing watch list.
“We watched very closely. We have a list, we are working through our list but we don’t publish those names. I know people say we should, but we have laws, and the law prevents us from doing that.
“We said we will do this and we will do this. And we are gathering the kind of information that will enable us do this, on specific individuals. At the moment the list is between 5 and 10 and it is growing”, Ben Llewellyn-Jones said.
Reacting on his Twitter handle at @realFFK, Fani-Kayode urged the British envoy to steer clear Nigeria’s issue.
He said, “I would advise this Ben, who I am told is the Deputy High Commissioner of the UK to Nigeria, to keep his dirty nose out of our internal affairs.
“Nigeria stopped being a British colony 63 years ago and we need no lessons from him on how to run our affairs or conduct our politics.”
He also accused the envoy of supporting an undisclosed candidate in the just concluded presidential election.
“I know that his preferred candidate did not win the presidential election but that does not mean he should cross the line and take liberties with us here. I wonder who the hell he thinks he is?
“I am not one of those Nigerians that bow, shake, shiver and tremble before the British or indeed any other foreigner.”
