Amb. Sarafa Tunji: Man on a Mission

The loudest trumpets will always be blown as tributes to the best performing individuals, especially when the said individuals are in public offices. This is the case with the new Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, Amb. Sarafa Tunji Ishola, whose work recently won the praises of iron lady and boss of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

Nigerians at home and in the United Kingdom have been given something to celebrate as Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa hailed the efforts of Amb. Sarafa Tunji Ishola. As the High Commissioner to the UK, Amb. Ishola’s endeavours are easy to measure and score. Thus, when he took a decisive step against passport racketeering in the UK, he was hailed far and wide.

According to reports, in one of the first meetings, Amb. Isola had, upon assuming office, was centred around the problem of passport racketeering and every other corrupt practice related to it. Afterwards, the committee agreed on decisive steps to take against this problem and how best to discourage its emergence a second time.

It is obvious that President Muhammadu Buhari considered the pros and cons before deciding on Ishola as UK High Commissioner. Moreover, someone who would succeed Justice George Adesola Oguntade could not have been an average person. This is exactly what Amb. Isola has shown himself to be—an extraordinary official representing the interests of 300+ million people.

It does not come as a surprise that Amb. Isola is earning accolades up and down. His more than 25 years of public service have prepared him for this office and more. Moreover, the UK is not a strange land for him since he spent several years there for his college education in the late 1970s and after that.

Most folks still remember his many contributions while he was the Minister for Mines and Steel Development. One might even say that it was partly due to his efforts that Nigerian governments took a step back from deifying the oil sector and focused on developing the other natural minerals, especially coal, gold, iron-ore, chrome-ore, and lead, to name a few.

To have this same progenitorial character representing the country is a fortune. And seeing that he is pulling out all the stops to achieve the objectives for which he was appointed, what is not to celebrate? With a man like Amb. Sarafa Tunji Isola on such a mission, success is all but guaranteed in every endeavour, starting with passport racketeering.