Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has been reassigned as the Ambassadir-designate to South Africa, after he was initialy assigned to Germany.

In a statement, Fani-Kayode stated that he had expressed discomfort with his posting to Germany during his formal representation to the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar. According to him, he was not comfortable with Germany for a number of personal reasons, one of which is the fact that he had lived in Europe most of his life and would prefer to go to South Africa which is a country that he had never been to and for which he has so much interest.

He said he also expressed the fact that he would rather serve in a country that shares some of his convictions, beilefs and values when it comes to world affairs, “that has the biggest economy in Africa, that has closer ties to Nigeria and that is more proximate to my political thinking when it comes to foreign affairs and a pan African vision.”

He said following the meeting, he made an application for a redeployment to South Africa, which was immediately approved by the President.

Fani-Kayode dismissed a report (not by The Guardian) that he was rejected by Germany, describing it as a total and complete fabrication based on hearsay, beer parlour talk and cheap gossip and designed to embarass him and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Worse still they listed a number of clearly outlandish and absurd reasons for this purported and fake “rejection” which they patched together and concocted reflecting the malevolent condition of their perverse imagination.

“Our findings after a preliminary investigation was that the story was not only sponsored but was also written with malicious intent and designed to hurt and destroy my career and bring me into both national and international opprobium and disrepute,” he said.

The former minister stated that he has reported the online magazine and the individuals that are behind it with a petition to the relevant security agencies for necessary action.

He has also briefed his lawyers to take up the matter by suing them in a civil action for defamation.

“What actually happened was that the day an ‘agreement’ was sent to South Africa by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was on March 13th, it was leaked to them and they falsely and maliciously reported that it was sent only because I had been formally rejected by Germany which they knew to be false.

“They attempted to establish falsehood as fact and this is unacceptable and far below the par of professionalism and proper journalism,” he said.

Fani-Kayode challenged those behind the report to bring documented evidence to back their claim that he was rejected by Germany.