The Federal Government is vetting potential candidates to fill diplomatic roles in its 109 missions, 76 embassies, 22 high commissions, and 11 global consulates, Sunday PUNCH reports.

Impeccable sources familiar with the developments revealed that a former Minister of Aviation under the Obasanjo administration, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, and a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Femi Pedro, are among the nominees.

It was also gathered that the vetting is not conducted centrally, as nominees are being asked to report to the DSS offices nearest to them.

Presidency officials confirmed to our correspondent that several candidates had been contacted to provide personal education and work history.

?They?re already doing security checks with DSS. When they have cleared security checks, we will release the list.

?Only those who have been cleared are announced. The process is ongoing. I know that we should have a list before the end of this month (April),? one official revealed, preferring to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak to the press.

A second source said, ?The vetting is not done centrally. It is based on the location of the nominees. Nominees have been reached to provide personal history and information such as where they attended school, what appointments they have held, and the like. So, it is by location.?

Tinubu?s 4Ds and funding issues

Since September 2023, President Bola Tinubu has operated his 4Ds?Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora?foreign policy without ambassadors.

That month, he concluded a sector-wide reassessment of Nigeria?s foreign policy, which saw over 83 career and non-career ambassadors recalled from their stations.

Last December, reliable sources close to the President confirmed that Tinubu spent part of his holiday reviewing the names of nominees with plans to transmit a consolidated list to the National Assembly before the end of the month.

However, updates in January revealed that the President changed his mind.

Our correspondent gathered that the process suffered delays due to the paucity of funds?to the tune of $1bn ?required to pay arrears of foreign service officials, settle a backlog of overheads, replace ageing vehicles and renovate embassy buildings.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, ?You see, the major issue is money. Not money to pay them [ambassadors], because how much is their salaries and benefits? The main money is CAPEX [Capital Expenditure]. By the time they put the cost together to fix the issues, it is running to almost $1bn.

?Most of those embassies, almost 90 per cent, are rundown. Either the residence is not good, the embassy does not have a functional office, or their rent has expired. The embassies that are buoyant may not be up to 10 as we speak.

?I understand that some of them don?t have serviceable vehicles. The last vehicles they bought were from 10 years ago. Some of them are broken down, and ambassadors cannot use such vehicles because they carry the image of the country. Some of them don?t even have power and running water. So, if you post ambassadors there today, you?re sending them to trouble.?

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, also attributed the delay to financial constraints.

?It is a money problem,? Tuggar said during a ministerial briefing in Abuja last May.

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

?We met a situation where foreign affairs was not being funded like it should be. Some loopholes are exploited by the likes of Binance. 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 countries and to run the missions effectively, one needs funding. Mr President is working on it, and it will be done in due course,? Tuggar said.

A foreign service official explained that though provisions had been made in the 2025 budget to cover some of that cost, the funds were hardly enough.

Nominees on the list

Senior Presidency and foreign service officers say although the complete list of nominees is highly classified, some prominent and controversial figures are being screened.

One official said, ?They?re going to announce the appointments soon. They are being screened as we speak. The names of the nominees are highly classified for now because not every one of the names listed will eventually make it through.

?FFK [Femi Fani-Kayode] is on the list. These are some of the controversial names that have been put forward as well. Then there is Fola Adeola [founder of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc] and Femi Pedro too. They?re moving on with the process more quickly this time.?

Giving reasons for the slow process, another official explained that the vetting was necessary to avoid complications that might hurt the country?s standing on the global scene.

?The nominees are being vetted, and background checks are being conducted on them. It is usually done so that the nominees will not have any security issues and their deployment will not have a negative impact on the country,? the official said.

There was also a claim that Reno Omokri, a former aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan, was on the list.

But a credible source in the Presidency denied it.

?Reno is not on the list. But FFK is there,? the source said.

The President?s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, who earlier spoke about the delays, said nominations for ambassadorial roles must be thorough before a final list is transmitted to the National Assembly.

?Don?t forget that the ambassadorial list has two components. There are career ambassadors and political ambassadors. The foreign affairs list and the consolidated list will still go through certain processes before they are released,? he explained.

Two of the nominees, when contacted by Sunday PUNCH, declined comment.

They also did not confirm or deny the report. (Text, excluiding headline: Sunday PUNCH)

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