By Milton Tella – Diplomats and staff of the Nigeria High Commission London rolled out the red carpet in honour of Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola on the presentation of his Letters of Credence to Her Majesty, The Queen and to mark his 61st birthday.
At a reception organized in his honour at the Tafida Hall, Nigeria House, Northumberland Avenue London, on Thursday, 25 November 2021, an impressive score card read by Mr Nuradeen Aliyu-Biu, Minister/Head of Information, Culture and Sports stated as follows: “On resumption as the High Commissioner, His Excellency, Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola set in motion the processes of reforming the Mission.
He engaged the Heads of section and other Home-based officers in the mission as well as Local staff to discuss ways that will result in improvement in services rendered by the Nigerian High Commission London.
With his open door style, he embraced the media, he asked for a meeting with leading media personalities in the UK. In the history of the mission no High Commissioner has ever interacted with the media like Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola. He discussed and worked out his transformation agenda in collaboration with the members of the media. His Excellency was open and transparent with the media personalities as he discussed touching issues affecting Nigerians in the UK and the negative perception of the Mission among Nigerians.
He encouraged sporting activities among the staff and other foreign missions and provided the needed incentive for winning the UK Diplomatic Football Cup within his two months of arrival.
Ambassador Isola introduced reforms in the Immigration Section of the Mission, putting in place a strategy for the clearance of a backlog of more than 20,000 passports within less than five months.
He offered quick intervention in the processing and issuance of passports to twelve (12) Nigerian Ladies in Scotland, who were bed-ridden due to their medical challenges.
His Excellency facilitated the launch and roll out of the Enhanced e-Passport at the High Commission, making the Nigeria High Commission, London, United Kingdom the first centre out of the entire Nigerian Diplomatic Missions abroad, where the Enhanced e-Passport will be processed and issued.
He initiated reform of the Passport processing system, leading to improved service delivery to Passport applicants, where you need to know nobody to get a passport at the Mission as against the situation before His Excellency’s arrival.
Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola’s style of cultural diplomacy resulted in the early return of some of the artefacts, which were carted away by the United Kingdom authorities during the colonial era. The Nigerian government has been making efforts to retrieve the stolen artefacts from all over the world for over 30 years now but His Excellency has achieved results in a very short time.
His Excellency had prompt engagement with the host government on critical issues regarding Nigeria-United Kingdom relations since assumption of duties and a generally positive visibility for Nigeria as a result of the various engagements with the host authorities.
He introduced regular engagements with the various members of Nigerian communities and the associations in the United Kingdom.
Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola has helped to boost investment drive by attending several business investment fora between Nigeria and Britain as well as other countries. Currently there is an ongoing plan to host Bi-National commission between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, which the High Commissioner is very passionate about.”
Other Heads of Section and local staff took turns to shower accolades on His Excellency, Ambassador Isola. In addition, Amir Bagwanje, representative of the Service Support Staff, said, “His excellency came at a time when there were lot of crises at the Mission, we were going through a lot of hardship, salaries were not being paid, things were a bit disorganised, but as soon as he came on board, he hit the ground running. He indeed made a great turn around, giving the Mission a good name.”
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