By Tope Abegunde
Men shut their doors against a setting sun and slam their shutters in the face of a champion. But where the door is slammed in the face of a rising sun, it requires the wisdom of the ancients to disentangle intrigue from character mishap; and perfidy from the purity of intent. This is because it’s the Mephistophelean plea used to legitimize devilish deeds, like the willful maligning of upright man by caitiffs.
Interestingly, however, the attention of the Nigerian Ambassador to Spain, His Excellency, Ambassador Demola Seriki, has once again been drawn to another, in the series of orchestrated, sponsored and malicious media onslaught and blackmail against him.
While good news picks its way laggardly across the world, bad news leaps across the world’s remotest stretches at the speed of light.
In the latest falsehood published in some blogs, and disseminated via multiple social media platforms, by one faceless group, United Nigerians Forum, which claimed Seriki was illegally collecting international passports issuing charges. The doomsday rumour is a poorly choreographed bunch of lies.
While dismissing the narrative in its entirety, the former Minister of State for Interior described the attempt as a jejune, warped and vile attempt by curious jokers to blackmail him and discredit his leadership in the European mission; and also his attempt towards restructuring the Embassy for increased productivity.
The group, in the grammatical error-ridden statement, alleged that:
“A circular was issued by the ambassador on 2nd July 2021 mandating passport applicants who showed up at the embassy in Madrid without appointment to pay the sum of 200euros (N130,000) equivalent in cash.
Similarly, all applicants with appointments that fail to show up are charged the sum of 20euros (12,800). These fees are all charged in cash at the embassy.
Also 500 euros (N260,000) is charged for the same day express service of passport issuance, all these going to Seriki’s purse.
Seriki, an accountant by profession, why must he insist on collecting cash when he clearly know the rules governing the financial transactions“
Contrary to their figment, the Ambassador detailed there was nothing like 500 euros charge in any case or manner.
“The Classification we have is 200 euros for express, with no prior appointment and it is allowed by Governments in all countries”.
“Passport fees are going to TSA account directly. That aside, I reduced charges from 70euros top 50 for adults and from 40euros, where I met it, to 25euro for children.
Curiously, however, In another acerbic article entitled ‘The Nigerian Embassy in Madrid Spain is a Mess’, the blogger alleged that the Ambassador lives a high profile lifestyle because he drives a Range Rover Jeep; and that he also threatened to sack local staff who refuse his provisional job offer; and had sacked seven of them as at the last count, among other allegations.
The allegations are a flagrant fabrication manufactured by a frustrated group of employees who are opposed to the transformation and restructuring he has brought to the embassy.
It is very laughable that the so called association, and his sponsors, as well as those mischievously escalating the fake news, clearly got it wrong, as their fabrication has holes in it.
Blinded by mischief and pull-him-down syndrome, according to an insider, they ought to have known that Chief Seriki would never do anything that would violate the country’s labour laws.
In an exclusive chat with The Capital, the Ambassador described the allegations as brazen lies concocted by a disgruntled set of staff averse to the change and restructuring he has brought to bear on the embassy. On the issue of his car, Ambassador Seriki disclosed that when he got to Madrid, there was no representational car, which necessitated having to bring his own car from Nigeria.
He said, “Unlike other public officials who would have used the embassy’s money to buy an official car, I brought my personal Range Rover from Nigeria for use at no expense to the Nigerian government or the embassy. I brought my car to give respect to my country. I am allowed to bring my car. Where is the crime in that?”
With a single-minded vision to enhance the interest of Nigeria in Spain and pursue the overall protection of Nigerians there, Ambassador Seriki rued the allegation that he was arbitrarily sacking local staff who refused to accept his offer of a contract position instead of the old practice of a permanent job offer that had resulted in a bloated workforce.
Indeed, he said that there is a benchmark for how many local staff can be employed but that previous ambassadors had abused the process by employing and turning into permanent staff their personal aides. “Every diplomat before me employed an additional staff for the embassy before exiting. Most times, the persons are their relatives or loyalists. Our staffing ceiling is supposed to be 15 but as we speak, our local staffers are 25.
“Even after these ambassadors had completed their mission or were redeployed, you would find out that they left behind these aides that they had surreptitiously and illegally integrated into the system,” he said, lamenting further that “whereas the salary of staff is very high, inflow is low.”
He added that there was no way the mission could continue to pay salaries without sanitising the place by weeding out the redundant staff. As a result of this, the former Minister of State for Defence said that he had to fashion out a new way of doing things by offering provisional appointments of one year that is “subject to renewal based on general conduct in the execution of your official duties as assigned by the Head of Mission.”
The Ambassador continued; “I generously made them the offer to accept the yearly renewable appointment which is the position of the Federal Government of Nigeria and still maintain their jobs in addition to paying the up-to-date entitlements and the 13th month salary but they refused. The present permanent position they have is exposing Nigeria to almost 400, 000 Euro which is their preference but if we don’t desist from this practice, we will surge to almost 1, 000, 000 Euro in five years because of the Spanish labour laws.
Seriki, who shares a strong leaning towards developing robust bilateral and private trade relations between Nigeria and the Kingdom of Spain, said that contrary to the bilious article, he would never do anything to contravene the labour law of the country. “I dare the writers and their collaborators to test the labour laws of Spain against what we have done to repackage and restructure our embassy. I am restructuring hence these petitions and rumours. There is no way you can do reforms without oppositions,” he concluded.
He stated that there is a limit to how many local workers can be hired, but that previous ambassador had exploited the system by hiring and converting their personal aides into permanent employees.
“The present local staff is 25 whereas our ceiling is 15. We are currently exposed to over €1,200,000 because of the permanent contract to local staff in Madrid. We can’t afford it. Madrid is the only mission in the world with permanent contracts.
“Every diplomat before me employed an additional staff for the embassy before exiting. Most times, the persons are their relatives or loyalists,” Seriki said.
Seriki further revealed, “Even after these ambassadors had completed their mission or were redeployed, you would found out that they left behind these aides that they had surreptitiously and illegally integrated into the system,”
He went on to say that the mission could not continue to pay salaries without cleaning up the area and filtering out the redundant employees.
However, this is calling on unsuspecting public to be wary of blackmailers’ shenanigans, as we also wish to sound a note of warning to all those who have made it their pastime to sponsor malicious write-ups, tweets and online publications against Chief Seriki and the Nigerian Mission in Madrid, that their day of reckoning is not far away.
We have put our legal team on notice to deal with such malicious write-ups.
