Between 2006 and now, five different presidents have presided over the affairs of Nigeria, four Nigerian envoys to Italy (including the outgoing Ambassador) have come and gone, but Olaniran continues to reign over his fiefdom in Rome. The egregious nature of Olaniran continued stay in Rome is such that envoys and diplomats have levelled so many allegations at him. His age, corruption, nepotism, none performance, are just some of the issues trailing this man.
At a time teeming Nigerian youths with academic degrees of various hues and shades are without employment, many people with interest in this matter are wondering why Olaniran, who is now in his 80s and should be in retirement, is the one sitting tight at this office in Rome. AfroLife’s enquiries into the matter spanning months have revealed that this is an unusual trend, especially with regards to deployments to public offices by the Nigerian government. It’s been alleged that he’s merely a front for one powerful politician who hails from South-West Nigeria, with active connivance of some officials at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
At the Embassy of Nigeria in Rome where Olaniran occupies a sprawling office, a one time Ambassador at the mission couldn’t hide his anger about the man. He asked AfroLife’s reporter to rail out whatever the man has achieved for Nigeria through his many years in Italy. He said the young man sent to Rome by the President of tiny Liberia George Weah had attracted FAO presence to his country compared to Nigeria under Olaniran. The point needs to be made that most foreign government through their missions in Rome second their Ambassadors as representatives to the FAO. Nigeria, legendary for wastefulness decided to create an office for this purpose gulping millions of Euro annually.
One of the controversy generated by Olaniran unending sojourn in Rome is the huge sums of money the Nigerian government spend annually to maintain him and his family in the country. His accusers point to inflated accommodation and other sundry allowances that are doled out to him on monthly basis in the last 17 years compared to the two last occupier of that office. It’s on record that in spite of the fact that the government owed F. Bature in severance allowances at the time of his departure from Rome, the Nigerian managed to leave some $3million in the coffers of government.
Since digging himself in as FAO reps, Olaniran has been accused of parading himself as Ambassador. According to one Nigerian envoy who spoke to AfroLife, the issue came to a head when a fellow Ambassador from another African Mission in Rome demanded to know between himself and Olaniran who was the dully accredited envoy to Italy. A former financial attache at the Embassy lamented to AfroLife the burden of having to serve two Ambassadors. He accused Olaniran of nepotism. He alleged that the FAO reps brought a relative of his all the way from Germany to work for him in Rome with the Nigerian government paying her salary for months.
Olaniran is also accused of owning properties in Rome, an accusation that isn’t lost on some staff at the Embassy of Nigeria in Rome who now dubs him as a “glorified local staff,” a term used for locally recruited employees at the mission with long term conditions of service. All efforts to get Olaniran to respond to these accusations prove abortive. Several visits to his office at the Embassy didn’t yield any result. He refused to pick phone calls and won’t respond to text messages. It remains to be seen if Yaya Olaniran would continue his reign as Nigeria’s representative to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO in Rome, after 17 long years under the Bola Tinubu administration.
