Reps propose additional consulate offices in UK, US, Canada
The House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs has called on the Federal Government to approve the immediate opening of new consulates in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Canada to better serve the needs of Nigerians in the Diaspora.
The Chairman of the Committee and member representing Oriade/Obokun Federal Constituency, Osun State, Oluwole Oke, made the call in an interview with The PUNCH on Monday.
“To meet the needs of Nigerians in the Diaspora, there is an urgent need to open new consulates in Manchester, United Kingdom; Calgary/Edmonton in Alberta Province in Canada; Houston, Texas; and San Francisco, United States of America,” Oke said.
“We will make provision in the 2025 appropriations for these proposed consulates to commence operations,” he added.
Oke promised, on behalf of the committee, to contact the relevant agencies to facilitate the proposal.
“I will reach out to the Minister of Interior, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, and the National Intelligence Agency to deploy their personnel to these proposed consulates,” he pledged.
Justifying the need for the establishment of these consulates, Oke said, “Nigerians suffer a lot and spend so much on consular-related services with the current arrangements where we only have consular services in Washington DC, New York, Atlanta in the entire 53 states of the USA and Ottawa only in the whole of Canada.
“Citizens fly for seven hours to get consular services. We owe our citizens a duty of care and we shall discharge it,” he stated.
