Dear Mr. President, Honourable Members of the Assemblies, Foreign Affairs Minister, fellow Nigerians, I humbly wish to use this public medium to inform you all that the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Austria and to Slovakia, Her Excellency, Ms Maria Oyeyinka Laose has been disgraced in Vienna by Nigerian communities after she belittled her exalted office and abused her power.
Fellow Nigerians, if one goes to the Nigerian embassy website Vienna (www.nigeriaembassyvienna.com) and clicks on “All News,” one will see a publication from the ambassador with the headline “Nigerian community in Austria denounces Uzoma Ahamefule”. And in reaction to this publication, the umbrella body of Nigerian communities in Austria, National Association of Nigerian Community Austria (NANCA) the body the ambassador claimed that denounced Uzoma Ahamefule reacted angrily over such mischievous claim from the ambassador with a publication on NANCA’s website that disclaimed in totality all what she credited to them or wrote about Uzoma Ahamefule that included a “NANCA Press Release” dated “3 January 2013” that was signed by NANCA PRO Jesse OJobor also published at the embassy website. But immediately the truth from NANCA was made public through their counter publication on their website, the ambassador became very worried and disappointed of those she had thought that would have blocked such publication and intensified pressure on them to get it removed from NANCA’s website. After the president Of NANACA Engr. Yemi Ogundele who had earlier told me that he was “under pressure” because of the press release had tried to get the support of many members to withdraw the publication from their website and failed, he ordered the webmaster to remove it on flimsy excuses. Because of this singular act there is no peace in NANCA.
I wrote to the NANCA executives, I told NANCA members in their general assembly last month, and once more, I am emphatically saying that I am not a member of NANCA and never claimed to be the spokesperson of the group neither did I at anytime claim to be a member. So, the issue of speaking on behalf of the body as a reason for the ambassador, Engr. Ogundele and Jesse Ojobor to hold hand and callously deceive Nigerians and blackmail a sincere patriotic citizen is unpatriotic and a bunkum that demands condemnation from every good spirited Nigerian.
In some of the points of the ambassador’s publications on the Nigerian Embassy website, she wrote, and I quote, “The National Association of Nigerian Community in Austria , NANCA has denounced one Uzoma Ahamefule …”. And in reply to this NANCA wrote, and I quote, “Sequel to the article published by the Nigeria Embassy Vienna on their Website on 22/01/2013 saying among other things that “Nigerian Community in Austria denounces Uzoma Ahamefule”, the National Association of Nigerian Community Austria (NANCA) would want our dedicated members, friends and well-wishers to know that NANCA did not …”. In another point the ambassador published and I quote, “The Organisation in a statement issued after a crucial meeting of its Executive members on 3rd January, 2013 in Vienna over the publication in the Vanguard, described Mr. Uzoma Ahamefule as representing himself sending out baseless stories to journalist on behalf of Nigerians in Austria.” And NANCA replied her and her agents, Engr. Ogundele and Jesse Ojobor, and I quote, “This does not represent NANCA’s position. The bedrock of what makes NANCA NANCA has been her credo to stand for the truth.” Again the ambassador claimed in another point and I quote, “Leaders of the Nigerian community also revealed that on confronting Mr. Ahamefule with the fact there was neither a rift between Nigerians and the Embassy nor with Her Excellency Ms Maria Oyeyinka Laose, Ambassador/Permanent Representative, he however denied the claims in the publication adding that he was misquoted ….” And NANCA replied her and I quote, “Furthermore, NANCA would like to distance herself from the claim …”
Fellow Nigerians, it is imperative to note that since the first official week of the ambassador into office in Vienna , Austria in 2011, she has used eventually every weapon she could lay her hands on that included lies, intimidation, and blackmail to attack my personal integrity and honest reputation. All the insults she has hipped on me each time she called me because of my article to warn me, all her abusive words all this while, I have kept mute because of the respect I have for her office and because her insults to my person when she severally called me were only known by me and her, thus, I respected her position and remained silent. But since she has now decided not only to insult me publicly but also to tarnish my image like she did in 2011 when she betrayed my kind gesture and abused my privacy to the press when I replied to her mail she had sent to me. I am irredeemably condemned to also speak out publicly. For her, my selfless and patriotic services as a concerned citizen are devilish and evil that my reputation must be crushed. With the help of Jesse OJobor, and unpredictable Engr. Ogundele, her recent shame of show and press aggression are meant to mislead Nigerians including occupants of Aso Rock in Abuja that all is well and smooth with her and Nigerians in Austria against every evidence that it is not true. But no matter the size of a cloth, pregnancy cannot be covered for too long as Nigerians in Austria spoke their minds during their interview with me last year and in their NANCA publication countering the dubious NANCA press release on the Nigerian Embassy website dated 03.01.2013 and also the ambassador’s publication that I have been denounced by Nigerian communities in Austria.
It is not a secret that I openly make use of my fundamental human right to freedom of speech and express my contrary views on government policies or methods of execution when I deem such necessary and if time permits. Fellow Nigerians, it is not my nature to attack the office of my leaders or dubiously attack their characters and personalities for any reason. There is no controversy that I have enough evidence and genuine reasons to attack Her Excellency, Maria Oyeyinka Laose openly the same way she has been attacking me since 2011. But because the interest and the dignity of Nigeria or Austria comes first and supersedes my personal interest in all my actions, I humbly appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru and eminent citizens of the federal republic of Nigerian to critically look at this issue and hook Nigeria off this embarrassment by calling Ambassador Maria Oyeyinka Laose to order and compel her to withdraw the shame she published on the Nigerian embassy website about me in her moves to assassinate my reputation and thwart the truth. Those blatant lies on the website of the Nigerian embassy in Vienna does not in any way bother me on personal ground, but I feel ashamed and uncomfortable as a concerned Nigerian that such embarrassment could be boldly advertised on the official website of a country before the eyes of international communities.
Before this article, I advisedly contacted some top officers of the embassy and told them to tell the ambassador to withdraw the publication because they are lies and that if I should go public, it would be obvious that people would acknowledge the truth easily and that I did not think that it would be good for her position, her image and that of Nigeria. Since I would not like to be seen to be rubbishing my ambassador or her office even when I know that she has done something very bad to me and that I am right, hence I took all these steps. But it was either they did not advise her or that they did but she refused to adhere to their wise advice and thus, the decision to come to the public through this medium in defence of the truth becomes necessary.
Fellow Nigerians, the content of the press release as seen published on the Nigerian embassy website and signed by Jesse OJobor is not the stand of NANCA members as stated above. The truth is that Engr. Ogundele and Jesse OJobor dubiously connived in trying to defeat the truth thinking that their positions in NANCA were good enough to influence so much against the wishes of the members. Therefore, Jesse OJobor wrote the press release and Engr. Ogundele against the stand of NANCA members smuggled the “Press Release” to the embassy through one Sunny Akpan that nearly made some members of NANCA executives resign from their positions. And that was why the real and genuine press release from NANCA was the one that was published on NANCA’s website against the rejected and manipulated one on the Nigerian embassy website. And when I contacted Engr. Ogundele to know why he should behave the way he had done to a man that has only helped him knowing that he also had granted an interview to me. He told me plainly that he was “under pressure from the ambassador”.
Fellow Nigerians, the shameful questions begging for explanation from the ambassador are these: If the press release signed by Jesse OJobor and published on the Nigerian embassy website was a true position of NANCA; why did NANCA members not publish the so-called “Press Release” on their own website but instead they countered it with a publication? Jesse OJobor has been signing and publishing press releases on NANCA’s website as their PRO; did the ambassador not ask him why he was not allowed this time to publish this press release on NANCA’s website? Are Nigerian embassy websites not meant to publish official issues that promote the image of Nigeria and Nigerians and foster cordial relationships with her host countries or projecting distinguished Nigerians at different fields to the world? Why did the ambassador convert the official website of the embassy into her private attacking dog? It has never happened before that the embassy of Nigeria in Vienna published a NANCA’s press release even under her. Why did she publish this very particular rejected press release if not because she wanted to cover the truth? Will she now continue to publish all the press releases of NANCA in order to cover this blackmail on me? Engr. Ogundele, how did I wrong you? What did I do that the ambassador got desperate up to this level of personal attack on my name based on deceit one may want to know?
To be continued
Uzoma Ahamefule a concerned patriotic citizen writes from Vienna , Austria .
Mail: [email protected] : Phone: +4366046596