During a press conference before she departed from Nigeria, Ms. Emmanuelle Blatmann, the outgoing Ambassador of France to Nigeria, jokingly remarked that Nigerians had attempted to kill her numerous times with their pepper soup.
However, she emphasized that she would never forget the country as she embarks on her new position as the director for Africa in Paris. Blatmann expressed her fondness for Nigeria’s climate, its warm-hearted people, vibrant music scene, and diverse culinary delights, apart from the infamous pepper soup.
She said;
I will be very honest with you and blunt, I will not miss the pepper soup because it’s too peppery. You people tried to kill me several times.
I will be eating all sorts of things with my eyes red and crying, I have smoke coming out of my ears. I am exaggerating but honestly, why do you put so much pepper? In the North, it’s better but in the South West, my God!
But I like the jollof rice, I like the moimoi and the puff-puff. I will miss the climate, I will miss the love of the people, I will miss the sense of humour, the laughter, the music, the dancing, I dance a lot, I will miss a lot.”
Emmanuelle Blatmann is a French diplomat. She is the current Ambassador of France to Nigeria Emmanuelle had a unilingual diploma in Oriental language and Civilisation from INALCO. She had her Magistère in International Relations and Action Abroad from Paris I and a master’s degree in English from Paris IV. She was Ambassador of France to Sudan from 2017 to 2021. In October 2021, she was appointed as the Ambassador of France.
