Baba Kadiri did indeed point out that " Nigeria has had an Embassy in Sweden since 1970 but in the past six months the Nigerian Embassy which is also accredited to Denmark, Finland and Norway, has been managed by a Chargé dé Affaires. If the Embassy of Nigeria in Sweden were to live up to the standard of other diplomats in the world, it would, at least, have liaised with the Swedish Media to tout the impending visit of Vice President Kashim Shettima to Sweden"
Absolutely!
And the red carpet would have been rolled out for VP Shettima & entourage / trade delegation
For the arrival of President Tinubu & the First Lady of Nigeria, trumpets and a 21-gun salute
With regard to the PR that's supposed to be one of the functions of an Embassy, with a press attaché and a public relations officer, here's one of the reasons why the VP's two day visit to Sweden didn't get that much publicity :
'Extended Delay In Appointing Ambassadors Diminishing Nigeria's Global Relevance'
On Sunday 27 October 2024 at 21:49:13 UTC+1 Salimonu Kadiri wrote:
In the evening of Wednesday, October 16, 2024, I read in the online Nigerian Vanguard that the Vice President of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, was to represent President Tinubu in Sweden for bilateral talks. When the bilateral talks in Sweden would take place was not stated. The following day, Thursday, October 17, 2024, the online Nigerian Vanguard had the Headline, "SHETTIMA ARRIVES IN SWEDEN FOR TWO-DAY VISIT." The online Nigerian Vanguard reported further that Vice President Kashim Shettima was accompanied by Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, the Governor of Plateau State Caleb Mutfwang; and some heads of government agencies and parastatals. Targeted area to strengthen collaboration between Nigeria and Sweden, vanguard reported, were ICT, digitalisation, sustainable transport, agriculture and mining. Besides, VP Shettima would meet with the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, and Crown Princess Victoria.
A visit by a Vice President of Nigeria, with over population of 200 million people, to Sweden with just ten million people must echo high in the host country's media, one would think yet, Vice President Kashim Shettima's visit was un-noticed by all the media in Sweden. The Swedish public never knew that the Vice President of the most populous Black Country in world, Nigeria, was in Sweden for bilateral talks. Nigeria has had Embassy in Sweden since 1970 but in the past six months the Nigerian Embassy which is also accredited to Denmark, Finland and Norway, has been managed by a Chargé dé Affaires. If the Embassy of Nigeria in Sweden were to live up to the standard of other diplomats in the world, it would, at least, have liaised with the Swedish Media to tout the impending visit of Vice President Kashim Shettima to Sweden. Nigerian Diplomats in the Embassy of Nigeria in Sweden, like their Nigerian counterparts elsewhere in the world, are like home cats wearing the fur of leopards but can only prey on mice and not gazelles like leopards. However, they continue to pretend to be leopards.
By Saturday, 19 October 2024, Vice President Kashim Shettima returned to Nigeria with his entourage after a two-day working visit to Sweden and the online Nigerian ThisDay carried this Headline: Nigeria Seals Deal With Ericsson To Advance 5G Technology Development. ThisDay reported, "Vice President Kashim Shettima yesterday (Friday, 18 October 2024) led other Nigerian Officials to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Sweden between Nigeria and the telecom giant, Ericsson, on a 5G Innovation Lab." ThisDay reported further, "Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, signed the MoU on behalf of the Nigerian Government while Mr Peter Olusoji Ogundele, Country Manager of Ericsson Nigeria, signed on behalf of the telecom giant. Dr Tijani said, "So we signed the MoU to set up an Innovation Lab with Ericsson and the focus of that Lab will be to come up with applications bases on 5G technology for our projects and practices in agriculture, mining, education as well as for the general usage of connectivity to improve the quality of life for our people. While being briefed on the company's technological evolution, radio spectrum matters, standardisation, as well as Cyber and Network Security, Vice President Kashim Shettima inquired about the possibility of deploying 5G technology to help Nigeria improve security of oil facilities, prevent oil theft, and pipeline vandalization."
With the report of ThisDay, one should wonder why Vice President Shettima was not briefed in Nigeria by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, before arrival in Sweden on what was going to be signed in Sweden if the presence of VP Shettima was at all warranted? Alternatively, why could the Embassy of Nigeria in Stockholm, Sweden, not brief the VP about what the 5G technology agreement to be signed implied since the VP arrived on Wednesday, a day before his two working days began? Remarkably, the 5G Innovation Lab MOU was not signed between Ministers of Communications, of Sweden and Nigeria but between Dr Bosun Tijani, Nigeria's Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and Ericsson's General Manager in Nigeria that happened to be a Nigerian by name Peter Olusoji Ogundele. Why did the two Nigerians travel all the way from Nigeria to Sweden to sign an agreement which both could have signed conveniently in Nigeria? Could it not have been comfortable and cheaper to invite the Director General of Ericsson in Sweden, if not Sweden's Minister of Communication, to Nigeria to sign the 5G Innovation Lab MoU with Dr Bosun Tijani?
To us, Nigerians, everyday is first April whereby we are either fooling one another or having the entire world fooling us. Like maggots, the latrine is a five-star hotel for us and we thrive in filths in which we are very proud. After the disgraceful enquiry by the Vice President of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, if 5G technology could be deployed to improve security of oil facilities, prevent oil theft and pipeline vandalization had publicly been accomplished, the diplomatic illiterates at the embassy of Nigeria in Stockholm, Sweden, summoned some Nigerian flibbertigibbets to interact with VP Shettima in closed door meeting at the Embassy before his depature to Nigeria. This would not have been known but for the online Nigerian Vanguard of Saturday, 19 October 2024, which reported with the Headline, "Nigerian Youth Council In Sweden Protests Exclusion From Meeting With VP." The miscreant claiming to be President of Nigerian Youth Council in Europe told online Nigerian Vanguard that he was shocked that those who in their public utterances have been anti-APC Federal Government of which Shettima belongs, were in close-door meeting with him not for patriotic reasons but for selfish interest of the flibbertigibbet's elements seeking to get their own share of national cake. The problem with Nigerians, and especially with the intellectuals, is that everybody wants to eat cake but no one wants to be a baker!! The literates but not educated diplomats at the Nigeria Embassy in Sweden would not allow patriotic Nigerians here to meet with Vice President of Nigeria because they the diplomatic illiterates were afraid that their illegal extortions of money from innocent Nigerian applicants of passports and NINs would be exposed. While VP Shettima was witnessing the signing of 5G Innovation Lab MoU, the Consular page of the website of the Nigerian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, had been rendered inaccessible for nearly six months. Nigerian passport applicants all over the Nordic countries have been forced to travel personally to the Embassy to apply for passports. Apart from paying passport fee in USD that goes direct into the account of the Federal Government the Embassy imposed what it terms administrative fee of 500:00 Swedish kronor (about $50) if the applicant succeeds in filling forms online, and if not the administrative fee on personal visit to the Embassy is 1,000Kr (about $100 USD). In that way, the Embassy of Nigeria in Sweden prefer that applicants for passports, NIN and visa should come to the Embassy personally instead of online applications. A good reason why the Embassy has made its consular page treacherously functionless. What the Federal Government want passports, Visa and NIN applicants to pay in dollars have been stated but the Embassy Officials have been charging applicants extra administrative fees, paid into their local account, for carrying out official duties they are employed and paid to do. So, the diplomatic crooks at the Embassy of Nigeria in Stockholm consciously prevented patriotic Nigerians from meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima on his two working days' visit to Sweden in order to avoid being exposed of the dormant consular page of the Embassy's website situated in Sweden from where Nigeria is acquiring 5G technology.
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