Two former envoys have criticised President Bola Tinubu’s non-appointment of ambassadors 10 months after he recalled all career and political ambassadors representing Nigeria overseas.

They described as “unacceptable”, the prolonged delays in the appointment of diplomats to man Nigeria’s diplomatic missions and push the country’s foreign policy objectives in their host nations.

These were the thoughts of Nigeria’s former Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Usman Sarki; and ex-Senior Advisor to the United Nations (Nigeria Office), Fred Eno.

The two diplomats spoke on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Friday.

On September 2, 2023, some three months after Tinubu, an ex-Lagos governor, was inaugurated Nigeria’s President, he recalled all Nigerian ambassadors manning over 100 Nigerian embassies and high commissions from their host countries.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, had said the ambassadors served at the behest of the President in their host nations and it was the President’s “prerogative to send or recall them from any country”.

However, 10 months after, the President has not sent a list of fresh ambassadors to the Senate for approval and onward deployment to missions abroad despite that Nigeria has been playing host to the ambassadors of other countries with missions in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

On this, Eno a former Senior Advisor to the United Nations (Nigeria Office), said, “For a country like Nigeria to stay for an entire year without professional or career diplomats or political appointees manning our country’s (embassies and high commissions) is not just acceptable. It’s not what we can continue debating. And it’s a failure.”

‘Serious Disconnection’

On his part, Sarki, Nigeria’s former Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the development showed serious disconnection between the Tinubu administration and other countries.

He said, “The country that you have left without an ambassador, that country will consider it as a negative vote of confidence because the country is maintaining an ambassador in your capital.

“That ambassador has presented his documents to your President and he or she is operating in your capital and you don’t have yours in his capital? That is a very serious disconnection in terms of relationships with other countries.

“The presence of an ambassador represents the presence of the President in a country. For 10 months, one year, you don’t have an ambassador in my country, which shows that you do not accord the proper respect to me as a President, as a country.

The diplomat said other countries in the rest of the world won’t allow this to happen regardless of the circumstances.

He appealed to the foreign affairs ministry and the President to resolve the issues stopping the deployment of ambassadors and the funding challenges at Nigerian embassies and high commissions worldwide. (Channels TV)

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