13 months after, Tinubu yet to appoint ambassadors

Thirteen months after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered the recall of Nigerian envoys, he is yet to appoint new ones, Daily Trust reports.

Since he recalled the envoys on September 2, 2023, Nigeria’s 109 diplomatic missions, comprising 76 embassies, 22 high commissions and one consulate have been without full diplomatic representation in the rank of ambassadors.

Foreign policy experts and ex-diplomats are expressing concerns that the absence of full representation at the ambassadorial level in Nigerian missions abroad is affecting the country’s foreign relations thrust.

Their argument is that the chargé d’affaires running the missions do not have the commensurate weight and rank to meet with foreign ministers of their host countries, going by diplomatic protocols and procedures.

This, according to the experts, is because as officers at the director level in the civil service, the charge d’affaires’ ranking does not accord them the right to operate at the highest possible level in representing Nigeria in their host countries and in international fora.

A retired diplomat, Ambassador Suleiman Dahiru, while speaking to Daily Trust, said the president ought to have appointed new ambassadors almost immediately he recalled the former ones.

He said, “In fact, before recalling ambassadors, you would have recommended those who will take over from them and they are the ones to ask for agreemo on behalf of those new ambassadors coming but this has not happened. There are career officers who have been overdue for ambassadorial appointments but they have not been appointed and time is running out against them.

“By the time they make the appointments, you will find out that some of these diplomats, who could have been appointed ambassadors can no longer be appointed because they have few months to retire. The career officers are now the ones suffering.

“The politicians can do whatever they want to but for God’s sake, they should not tamper with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If you don’t accord the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the right recognition, those outside will not take us seriously and this is exactly what is happening.”

Another former diplomat told Daily Trust, on condition of anonymity, that the delay in appointing ambassadors could affect the relationship between Nigeria and some countries as they might not be open to dealing with lower cadre officers.

He said: “A chargé d’affaire may not be allowed to have meetings with a foreign minister of the host country because his position is just equivalent to that of a director. So, he may have limitations in handling serious issues, which require higher authority from his host country.”

Since the inception of his administration, President Tinubu has visited many countries and hosted delegations of foreign investors, who have expressed interest in assisting Nigeria in its quest for development. A lot of agreements across various areas have been signed.

However, Ambassador Dahiru, who had served in Brazil, Angola, Poland, Ivory Coast, Vienna, Austria, Sudan, Pakistan and Sudan, said Nigerians could not enjoy the gains of these agreements if there was no one at the top to follow up on them.

He said: “The president and the vice president have been travelling around the world looking for foreign investment. If you go out looking for foreign investment and you don’t have ambassadors in those countries, who will pursue what you have already negotiated?”

A former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Joe Keshi, considering how long the nomination and the screening of ambassadors in Nigeria as well as their clearance by designated host countries usually take, it may not be easy to have them in place soon.

He stated: “You don’t just call somebody and say, ‘you go to America’. When you agree on the person you want to send, you have to send his papers and every other thing to the country and until they accept, you don’t announce…This could take six months or even a year in some cases.’’

When contacted to speak on what is delaying appointment of ambassadors, Alkasim Abdulkadir, the spokesman for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, asked Daily Trust to direct the question to the Presidency.

Approached, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a text message, replied to one of our correspondents thus: “Pls, ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

Alkasim had said in February that there was no cause for alarm as the government was working on the appointment of new ambassadors soon.

He said, “Their replacements are being worked on by President Tinubu. Very soon new ambassadors would be announced.”

Abdulkadir explained that there was no delay in the process of appointment of new ambassadors, adding that, “It is a natural process.”

“The task of selecting those who will represent Nigeria is not something that can be done in a day. You have to look at the track record of these people; you have to look at their loyalty and relationship to the government of Nigeria; you have to do security checks; you have to do background checks up to their primary schools, because these people will be representing Nigeria.”

Abdulkadir had rejected the claim that activities had been on hold in Nigerian missions across the world as a result of the delay in the appointment of new ambassadors.

He said, “There are officers that have continued their work because they are staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the last month, I have gone to about four missions and things are going on. The work is going on.

“I just came back from Saudi Arabia; all the meetings that the minister had were handled by the staff of the mission; the acting ambassador and the consul-general.

“The chargé d’affaires have taken on the work of the ambassadors very well. There are no lapses anywhere.”

While assuring that the relationship between Nigeria and host governments was intact despite not having ambassadors in place in the foreign missions, he said, “That is why we have a mission or an embassy in the country. There are people who are working in those embassies. Like I told you, everything is going on fine.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, in May 2024, said the paucity of funds was responsible for the delay in appointing ambassadors for Nigeria.

The minister said President Tinubu’s administration was facing a significant financial and economic challenge, saying the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not been receiving the necessary funding to operate effectively.

He noted that it was pointless to appoint ambassadors without the financial resources to support their travel and the effective running of missions abroad.

“We met a situation where Foreign Affairs was not being funded the way it should be. It is a money problem. There is no point sending out ambassadors if you do not have the funds for them to even travel to their designated country and to run the missions effectively. One needs funding,” he said.

Despite these hurdles, Tuggar had assured that the government was addressing the issue. “Mr President is working on it and it will be done in due course,” he said.