By Yemi Akano Bamgbose
The title “Excellency” is reserved for a position of honour and high responsibility. Anyone who bears it is expected to be a person of decorum and integrity, measured in utterance whether in or out of government service. An ambassador is regarded as the embodiment of the President of his or her country in the place of deployment.
However, when a serving or former ambassador throws decorum to the winds by spewing blatant lies, unverified information and shameless outbursts on a national news platform, such an ambassador has lost both integrity and respect.
The recent foul-mouthed attack by Mrs. Ronke Marcus-Bello, former Nigerian Ambassador to Zambia and Malawi, respectively, against the person and personality of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, was most unexpected of a woman who was once trusted with an ambassadorial appointment by the Government of Nigeria.
There are some people who, when you see them walking almost naked on the street, you simply bypass without paying any serious attention. Mr. Abayomi Hunye, whom I nicknamed “Governor OSAMCA,” is one of such persons to whom no reasonable person pays attention for walking half-naked in public. I call him Governor OSAMCA because he has always made himself a willing tool to scuttle the noble ambitions of his own kinsman, only to be compensated by his sponsors with the position of General Manager of the Ogun State Agricultural Credit Management Agency (OSAMCA). At least that agency was big enough for him to govern. Therefore, whenever you see our brother Abayomi Hunye, please extend my greetings to “Governor OSAMCA.”
Ex-Ambassador Folake Marcus-Bello has turned herself into a purveyor of lies, a spreader of falsehood and a purveyor of libel.
Money can be desperate.
Money can change people. When former office holders are broke, they will do anything to return to old glory
On second thought, one can even forgive “Governor OSAMCA” for his misdemeanour because he has a dog in the fight.
What I find completely degrading, however, is for an ambassador to openly tell lies on national television, brandishing unverified documents to display her embarrassing lack of intelligence.
Ex-Ambassador Folake Marcus-Bello has turned herself into a purveyor of lies, a spreader of falsehood and a purveyor of libel.
Money can be desperate.
Money can change people. When former office holders are broke, they will do anything to return to old glory.
I believe Ambassador Folake Marcus-Bello was induced by Baba Ijebu’s money to campaign against the aspirations of Ogun-West. That money will soon finish, and she may be forced to reverse herself.
As of now, no genuine Egba indigene has come out to condemn Senator Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi).
It was known to people that Ex-Ambassador Folake Marcus-Bello’s performance as Commissioner in Ogun State during Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s administration was poor and did not justify her later ambassadorial appointment.
We are in a society where anything goes.
Until she is able to prove all the allegations she openly levelled against the paternity of Senator Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi), especially with the display of a burial programme purporting to show that the Senator’s father was buried in Ekiti, she should no longer be referred to as “Her Excellency.” Her foul-mouthed conduct has robbed her of the dignity associated with her former ambassadorial appointment.
. Yemi Akano Bamgbose writes from Kemta Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun State
