How non-appointment of ambassadors is hurting Nigeria — Envoys
EXACTLY 466 days or 15 months after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered the recall of envoys, Nigeria’s foreign missions have been without ambassadors.
The development comes with the possibility of harming the gains Nigeria is expected to reap from the President’s recent trips to China, France, South Africa and the visit of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to Nigeria, some ambassadors told Vanguard.
The current delay, as of now, is five months shy of the 20 months it took immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint ambassadors.
Since September 2, 2023, when envoys of 109 diplomatic missions, comprising 76 embassies, 22 high commissions and 11 consulates, were recalled and ordered to return on or before October 31, Nigeria has not had full diplomatic representation in the rank of ambassadors.
On March 25, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, reportedly said the ministry had compiled and forwarded the names of prospective career diplomats to President Tinubu for consideration.
On May 28, 2024, Tuggar cited paucity of funds as the major reason for delaying appointment of new ambassadors.
Tinubu had, in April 2024, appointed 14 consuls-general or Chargé d’Affaires for 14 countries but did not appoint functional ambassadors.
The delay is continuing amid claims that some of the recalled ambassadors have not been paid their disengagement allowances, known as AIEs (Authority to Incur Expenditures) for their passages.
The AIE explains the details of the entitlement of each envoy in terms of their passages and other travel arrangements to return to Nigeria.
In the absence of a substantive ambassador or envoy, consuls-general and chargé d’affaires can handle routine administrative duties and oversee the day-to-day operations of the embassies.
However, they lack the authority or diplomatic weight to engage at the highest levels with heads of state or critical international negotiations.
Decrying the non-appointment of ambassadors 15 months after, Ambassador Sulaiman Dahiru, a veteran career diplomat, who was Nigeria’s ambassador to Sudan, Brazil, and Permanent Representative at the United Nations, said: “Honestly, it is not normal for any country to leave its diplomatic missions abroad for so long without appointing ambassadors.
‘’It can be interpreted by other countries as down-grading of relations. A Charge d’Affaires is not an ambassador and there is a limit to the people he/she can interact with in the host foreign ministry. Therefore, our level of representation is not right.
“Some people have spoken about paucity of funds to appoint and send ambassadors abroad. I don’t buy this argument. It is possible that the foreign ministry does not command the attention it deserves. I personally believe that if Nigeria cares, it can effectively fund the ministry and the diplomatic missions abroad.
“The delay in appointing ambassadors is definitely negative on career diplomats, who will lose out because they may have less than two years to retire. This is not fair to such career diplomats. In most countries, the foreign ministry is the number one ministry. But in Nigeria, it is not so. Why? Only the government can answer this question.”
How Nigeria is missing out — Amb Amedu-Ode
Speaking on the issue, Amb Ogbole Amedu-Ode, former spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who served as ambassador in China, Mexico and Indonesia, said: “The non-appointment and deployment of principal envoys at the ambassadorial level to man key Nigerian diplomatic missions has dragged on for more than a year.
“On the surface, it does not look like it matters because governance is a continuum, in the sense that governance in the area of diplomacy is structured in such a way that in the absence of the substantive head, there will always be someone to act, in this case the Charge d’Affaires ad interim (CDA).
“However, after the recall of the principal envoys late last year, it is expected that by now, their successors would have assumed watch in the various missions but that is not the case right now.
“As I stated earlier, it might not seem to matter. But in the strict hierarchical order of the world of diplomacy, seniority in rank or position counts a lot. And this is where Nigeria may be missing out!
“For example, in PBAT’s very recent state visit to France and the visit to South Africa, it is pertinent that substantive heads of mission are on the ground in order to be granted the level of courtesies that are required in an outing such as a state visit.
“At the level of career diplomats, who have come of age and are expecting their maiden outing as ambassadors, the delay is impinging on their morale and, therefore, productivity. For them, time is of the essence to fulfill their career objective.”
Without ambassadors, Nigeria’ll gain little or nothing from bilateral agreements
One of the recently recalled ambassadors, who spoke anonymously, shared the same views.
He averred that other countries would reap more from the bilateral agreements that President Tinubu has signed.
His words: “Diplomacy is pretense. They won’t tell you that the absence of ambassadors will hurt you. They will take advantage of it. For instance, Nigeria has no ambassador in South Africa, France, China to follow-up on the bilateral agreements President Tinubu is signing. ‘’Charge d’Affairs are level 12 officers, they cannot do the work of an ambassador. They cannot relate with presidents. They cannot see any officer higher than a director in any diplomatic gathering.
“France has an ambassador in Abuja. He will come to follow up on French interests. It is France that will benefit from the agreements that President Tinubu signed with President Emmanuel Macron.
“In the USA, President-elect, Donald Trump, will take over in January. Customarily, after taking over, Trump will meet with ambassadors. Nigeria will miss out because that first meeting of Trump with the diplomatic community is critical.
“At diplomatic fora, ambassadors sit in order of seniority based on how they arrived. The oldest becomes the Dean of Ambassadors. Those who resume last take the last seats.
“An ambassador can go to the prime minister and arrange meetings and other engagements for the president. CDAs can’t arrange such meetings. It means Nigeria has down-graded her representation and it will affect our foreign policy.
Way out
“To recover lost grounds, President Tinubu should appoint people of high calibre, competent diplomats and technocrats as ambassadors. Diplomacy is a very complex process, we don’t need those who will come to learn on the job or those with controversial profiles because they may be rejected.
‘’Some of the new ambassadors may spend only a year because agreement takes about seven months.
“No ambassador resumes duty without agreement. As every country does, the way out is to put forward your nominees, security agencies will screen them, and they go to the Senate for confirmation. The ministry of foreign affairs will send letters of agreement to the countries they are being posted to and ask, ‘do you agree?’
“The other countries will start their own investigations. Sometimes, agreement takes between six and eight months. The least is two months for African countries because they will ask their security agencies to carry out thorough screening as ambassadors enjoy immunity.
“Sometimes, they will screen your children. The other countries allow their serving ambassadors to serve while doing the agreement so that if the outgoing ambassador leaves this week, another ambassador will come in next week because the appointing country does not have control over agreement.”
New ambassadors may be announced this week
However, Vanguard gathered that barring last-minute changes, President Tinubu may announce new ambassadors this week.
“The list has been submitted. Security operatives have carried out background checks on the nominees and gave some of them a clean bill of health,” a presidency source said.
Asked what is responsible for the delay and when new ambassadors would be appointed, Mr. Alkassim Abdulkadir, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Foreign of Affairs, told Vanguard on phone: “The appointment of ambassadors is the prerogative of the president. When appointed, they represent Nigeria and policies of the government of Nigeria.
“The list of political and career ambassadors for appointment has been compiled and sent to the president. We are waiting for the president to forward the list to the National Assembly for screening and confirmation.”
Recalled ambassadors’ve been paid passages
On claims that some recalled ambassadors were still being owed their AIEs, Abdulkadir said: “To the best of my knowledge, I am not aware of any unpaid passages. All outstanding passages have been paid.”
However, while some ambassadors said they had been paid, others said they were yet to be paid.
One of those who claimed he had not been paid, said: “The request for payment of passages is there but I am yet to be paid. It is a small amount, ranging from N2million to N4million, depending on the number of dependents.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a warning to the public, urging them to disregard a fake list of ambassadorial nominees circulating on social media.
The Ministry, in a statement by its spokesperson, Kimiebi Ebienfa, clarified that no ambassadorial appointments have been made.
It emphasised that the appointment of ambassadors is solely the responsibility of the President.
The statement reads: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to inform the general public to kindly disregard the fake list of ambassadorial nominees which is currently in circulation on some social media platforms.
“The ministry wishes to state unequivocally that the appointment of ambassadors is the prerogative of Mr President, and no such appointments have been made in that regard. The purported list should, therefore, be discountenanced.
