Nigeria’s international affairs and foreign affairs experts have weighed in on the impact of President Bola Tinubu’s failure to appoint effective heads of Nigeria’s diplomatic missions, including ambassadors and high commissioners, a year after he was recalled. I warned you.
The situation may have been further exacerbated by reports of dire conditions in some Nigerian missions abroad, which are rapidly deteriorating due to lack of funding and care.
Tinubu appointed 14 chargé d’affaires from 14 countries in April 2024, but it seems strange that he could not appoint a foreign functional ambassador.
“The president decides when to appoint a special envoy, but the current delay in selecting a substantive envoy is certainly not a good sign of the seriousness of Nigeria’s foreign policy.
“This uncertainty is worrying, as foreign interests seeking to do business with Nigeria reportedly find it difficult to engage at a high level in the absence of a substantive head. ” said the former diplomat.
Former Nigerian High Commissioner to Singapore, Ambassador Ogbole Ode, in an interview with Sunday Leadership on the impact of the president’s actions, said it was acceptable for a diplomatic mission to remain without a substantive head for a short period of time. However, he said that the actual person in charge has been absent for nearly a year. , there are many requests.
“It may be difficult to determine the real reason for this delay, but as foreign minister, it is definitely difficult to blame this on lack of funds due to budgetary constraints,” Yusuf Tugar told Mainstream. It is said. recent media.
“The absence or non-deployment of key envoys with long-term assignments overseas sends the wrong signal to the international community,” Oudet said.
On the dire situation of Nigeria’s foreign missions, the former envoy said there has been a consistent downward trend in most of Nigeria’s endeavors as a nation.
“Therefore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its outposts in other regions cannot be different just because they are Nigerian in content and character, and foreign policy is an extension of the country’s domestic policy. Don’t forget.
“The Tinubu administration is trying to reset our buttons. Therefore, as the fruits of the current policy efforts start to emerge domestically, such positive manifestations will also emerge in the international arena,” he said. .
Ode said the immediate impact is that the foreign policy establishment’s performance will be well below par.
Although there is no legal provision that requires the president to appoint an ambassador within a certain period of time, it is important to heed the advice of Ambassador Martin Uhomoibi, a former permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ukhomoibi told the Leadership in a recent interview that it is not a good idea to leave diplomatic missions vacant for long periods of time, as it could seriously affect the country’s reputation within the community of nations. Maybe not,” he said.
“If our diplomacy is to achieve the desired results, the sooner we appoint a substantive ambassador to replace the recalled ambassador, the better,” he said.
Bruce Rollo, former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in his contribution that the delay in appointing a substantive head of delegation is unusual.
In an interview with Leadership Sunday, the former Nigerian ambassador to Ethiopia said, “Never in Nigeria’s history as an independent country have there been more accredited ambassadors to head foreign embassies and high commissions.” I don’t remember the time,” he said. .
It is likely that a record has been set that Nigeria is not substantively represented in diplomatic missions abroad.
“While we recognize and acknowledge that it is President Tinubu’s prerogative to appoint ambassadors, the delay in the appointment of a key envoy to oversee Nigeria’s mission is very difficult to explain and understand. The level of national representation represents the quality and value of the relationship between the two countries involved.
“Delays in deploying ambassadors send the wrong message and signal to the countries and organizations they are supposed to serve.There is also the added disadvantage of denying Nigeria a voice at the highest diplomatic levels on the world stage. Ambassadors are the highest representatives of a country abroad.The longer we delay sending ambassadors, the more Nigeria will miss out on this important level of representation,” he said.
Commenting on the dire situation in Nigeria’s foreign diplomatic missions, a former special envoy said: “Let us recall that former President Muhammadu Buhari, in his last months in office, established a “Presidential Commission on the Review of the Number and Strategy of Nigeria’s Diplomatic Resources Missions Around the World”. I was honored to be a member of that committee.
“We have critically investigated the situation in Nigeria’s overseas missions and submitted a report to the government in April 2023. It is fair to say that the committee has done a good job. To the best of my knowledge , there is no time left for the President Buhari-led administration to act on the report, and the current administration has not done much regarding the recommendations contained in the commission’s report.
“My advice is for the government to consider this report carefully in parallel with the appointment of ambassadors.Nigeria’s foreign policy will benefit from not ignoring the contents of the report, especially the recommendations it contains. ” he said.
Livingston Wechee, an international constitutional law expert, says this means that the diplomatic voice and structures necessary to advance Nigeria’s external interests are dysfunctional.
He said: “Interestingly, although Nigeria is seeking permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council, the country does not have diplomats to lobby for that purpose. It cannot continue to play itself outside of the diplomatic high ground where it is discussed and hopes to still be a preeminent force to be reckoned with.
“We cannot continue to procrastinate on almost everything. The President has received credentials from foreign missions stationed in Nigeria, but we cannot ourselves boast of the same. What message does his failure or omission send to him other than to speak ill of him?” he lamented.
He added that Nigeria’s rapid slide into international and diplomatic isolation is worrying, and this is an intolerable price for the country. This is because diplomatic representation in a state is like the presence of one state in another state to further its interests.
“This interaction is crucial because diplomatic representatives, ambassadors, high commissioners and special envoys foster cooperation and relationships between states. This keeps the temperature within the international system low and stable.
“The overall effect is that Nigeria may lose the opportunity to influence decisions in world politics. It may indicate that
Constitutional experts say the sorry state of Nigeria’s diplomatic missions indicates that Nigeria may lack the ability to maintain and serve them due to incompetence, and that the country is struggling to maintain its position in the international arena. He said this may be portraying the company as incapable of pursuing profit.
He further said this would have a devastating impact on foreign trade by private economic entities in Nigeria.
“While the need to reduce governance costs is undisputed, it is argued that funding for foreign missions must be linked to value. We must break away from the fiscal recklessness of the overseas diplomatic missions that we see as a jamboree.
“The operation of diplomatic missions, like the operation of political offices without monetary value, must be stopped. The loss of recorded grounds cannot be tolerated. “It should be treated as an urgent priority to save our fading diplomatic infrastructure,” he said.
