Embarrassing spat

Jonathan’s spokesman Reuben Abati asserted that the president was ‘shocked, surprised and highly embarrassed’ by the “regrettable furore” that erupted over whether or not Jonathan had that telephone conversation with the Moroccan monarch.Jonathan had ‘only indicated’ that he wanted to speak with King Mohamed, and the presidents of Algeria and Egypt in what he said […]

Jonathan’s spokesman Reuben Abati asserted that the president was ‘shocked, surprised and highly embarrassed’ by the “regrettable furore” that erupted over whether or not Jonathan had that telephone conversation with the Moroccan monarch.
Jonathan had ‘only indicated’ that he wanted to speak with King Mohamed, and the presidents of Algeria and Egypt in what he said was continuation of efforts to garner support for Nigeria’s candidate for the headship of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Abati noted.
He explained that while Jonathan spoke with the Algerian prime minister and subsequently despatched Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo to Algiers to follow up on the discussions, the president was yet to speak with King Mohamed. “The president has, however, not spoken with King Mohammed VI and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must know,” Abati added.
The Moroccans felt very strongly about the initial statement from Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the King’s Palace issued an unusually blunt rebuttal, describing it as a deceitful ploy by the president to curry favour from Islamic states as Nigeria’s elections drew close and recalled the Moroccan ambassador to Nigeria for consultations.
Jonathan’s equally forceful denial of the purported telephone call and his directive that the matter be investigated may appear to be a fitting response; but the original claim that he spoke with the king had been in circulation for days before the indignant letter from Morocco.  Denial by the Moroccan Mission in Nigeria was also followed by the reiteration of the faux pas by Nigeria, even including snippets of the subject of the ‘conversation’.
What points were officials of Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry trying to score by insisting that Jonathan had spoken with King Mohamed during a visit to France, even after Moroccan officials said such a conversation never took place?
 “The King has actually declined the request of the Nigerian government because it is a part of the internal electioneering and this country’s fundamentally hostile positions with regard to the territorial integrity of the kingdom,” the Moroccan foreign affairs ministry said in a statement, making reference to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) which Nigeria recognised in November 1984 to the consternation of the Moroccan establishment.  Nigerian diplomats should have been acutely aware of this simple fact.
Because of this incident, Morocco would almost certainly see Nigerian government officials as liars, not worthy of relating with.  The blame for this should be placed squarely where it belongs, the Nigerian Presidency, which has practically turned every issue into an electioneering platform, whether related or not.
The spat with Morocco indicates diplomatic naivety, administrative ineptitude and leadership failure at various levels. Asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to investigate itself for the diplomatic snafu only reinforces belief that the matter would have been considered a positive message to the Nigerian public if the Moroccans had played along.
 Telephone conversation or not, Nigeria and Morocco have enjoyed excellent diplomatic relations for decades, collaborating on regional and global issues of mutual interests, which should not now be jeopardized because of the conduct of naive officials.