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Permit me to go back in time a little bit. In doing this, I want to borrow a popular line from Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari (as he then was), where he described Nigerians as “wailing wailers”. That was in 2016. Adesina had appeared on ‘The Osasu Show’ where he made frantic efforts to defend the policies and leadership of his master. This was against the popular view that his boss was not effective in leading the change he promised during the 2015 electioneering campaign. In responding to a question that questiioned Buhari’s effectiveness as President, Adesina said, “…whenever the president says something, you just start hearing noise, wah, wah, wah, wah, like a child whose lollipop has been taken away.”
This is exactly what the British media, especially, those that tagged themselves ‘royal analysts’ have been doing since Harry and his wife, Meghan, spent three days in Nigeria and were received by different people including Barr. Allen Onyema, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace. The hatred that some British media operators had expressed towards Harry and his wife has now been extended to Onyema, Air Peace and indeed, anyone who had something to do with the success of their visit to Nigeria.
The butt of the hate narrative was Nigeria itself. These ‘royal analysts’, so-called, have pulled all the plugs to describe Nigeria in the worst of adjectives for no other reason than granting Harry and his wife their wish to visit Nigeria. In visiting, Harry simply continued a tradition that was begun by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who first stepped foot on Nigerian soil in 1956, at a time when Nigeria lacked the resources to offer her a royal welcome and had to rely on Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, to make his Silver Wraith LWB Roll Royce available for the queen to be chauffeured in; and again in December 2003. Harry also observed something that his parents, Charles and Diana, did in March 1990, when they landed in Lagos and even participated in an event of Maryam Babangida’s Better Life for Rural Women at Tafawa Balewa Square.
In overlooking this history, the British media continually wail “wah, wah, wah, wah, like a child whose lollipop has been taken away” that Harry visited a country that is riddled with corruption, human rights abuses, advanced fee fraud, anti-female sexuality right practices and anti-homosexual rights. The crybabies, who dub themselves ‘royal analysts’, celebrated their self-delusion of the reality of the fact that the British government maintains a strong relationship with Nigeria despite the flaws that they listed. The ‘royal analysts’ also deliberately blindfolded themselves to the reality of the fact that corruption may be rife in Nigeria but that Britain has provided a haven for corrupt Nigerian government officials. In doing this, they pretend to be ignorant of the fact of provisions of criminal law jurisprudence which holds the thief and the receiver of stolen property equally liable.
In seeking to pour tar on Nigeria over Harry’s visit, one of such ‘analysts’ blamed King Charles for being unable to rein in Harry when he started exhibiting a rebellious character. Deductively, the analyst is telling us, and the world, that King Charles could not be firm as a father. Further implication of the ‘analysts’ comment is that their King is not strong-willed and as such incapable of being firm on issues that could affect both his private family and his Kingdom. What a way to denigrate the British monarchy in the guise of hitting out at Nigeria over Harry.
Besides, those ‘analysts’ have deliberately refused to accept that Nigeria is an independent nation and as one, would not return to be led by the nose by Britain especially when issues, like homosexual rights, which violate every known culture of the Nigerian people, are involved. Britain, and its media buffs, ought to know by now, that no amount of negative campaign would make Nigeria strike down The Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act (2014) which promised 14 years for those found guilty of same-sex relationships. Like we say in pidgin, ‘e no go work’. Put differently, all the flaws that the ‘royal analysts’ have identified against Nigeria, for which they argue that Harry and his wife ought not to have anything to do with the country, were all present when Harry’s grandmother and parents visited. They are still present even as the British High Commission makes a hell of profit selling visas to Nigerians.
And, like Sir Odumegwu Ojukwu, an Anambra son, did for Nigeria in 1956, Onyema, another Anambra son, rose to the occasion making available one of the aircraft on the Air Peace fleet to fly Harry and his wife around. Now, imagine the cost of that offer. By withdrawing the aircraft from scheduled commercial flight operations, Onyema sacrificed for Nigeria as he had done on several occasions. On all those occasions, Onyema lifted Nigeria and gave its image a very positive boost. He does this not minding how much it costs his airline. Onyema’s image and Nigeria’s global image also took an upswing as soon as Air Peace began flying the Lagos-London route, said to be one of the most lucrative in the aviation field. That brave-hearted venture broke so many rules as far as pricing was concerned. It also exposed the rip-off that Nigerians suffered on the route and as a consequence forced a price war which has ignited another phase of aero politics –attempting to use pricing to force Air Peace out among other allegations.
What Onyema and Air Peace did on the Lagos-London route hurt British Airways more than it did other airlines. The Igbo call it mpiawa azu. Before, British Airways dominated the route as its exclusive preserve. Onyema changed the game. Do I expect the British media to be happy? Not at all! And, they showed it by throwing mud at Onyema and seeking to use an allegation which was decided in favour of Onyema in 2022 to taint his image. A report in The Guardian on 30 October 2022 titled “US Court Acquits Air Peace Boss, Fines Mayfield $4000” refers. The report reads: “After three years of investigation involving five agencies of the American government and subsequent legal fireworks, the District Court of Atlanta, Georgia, has finally exonerated the Chief Executive of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyema, of any business fraud.” (See https://guardian.ng/news/us-court-acquits-air-peace-boss-fines-mayfield-4000/).
The British media would have saved their country, and readers, from this self-inflicted pain of willful ignorance if only it had been as thorough as it was thought, or imagined, to be. Attempting to ‘fight’ Onyema and Air Peace because of their involvement in the Harry and Meghan welcome party, will only cast a heavier slur on the British media, especially, the ‘royal analysts’. Those ‘analysts’ need to stop being ‘wailing wailers’ and screaming “wah, wah, wah, wah, like a child whose lollipop has been taken away” over Harry’s visit to Nigeria and the involvement of Onyema and Air Peace like civil rights leader and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, said “hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”
Despite the hate from the ‘royal analysts’ in the British media, Harry and his wife are having the fun of their royalty. Onyema and Air Peace are flying higher unperturbed while Nigeria refuses to genuflect before British crybabies.
