The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, on Sunday gave assurances that the Ambassadors-Designate would be posted out by the end of 2016.

Onyeama spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York, on the sideline of the 71st UN General Assembly in New York.

The Minister admitted that there are concerns about high representations in Nigerian Missions and Embassies across the world.

“Ideally, we should have it done by the end of the year; that’s ideally.

“But we know, we do not live in an ideal world; we will do our very best, but believe you me, it is a major concern for the Ministry and for me personally.

“It’s not something that we are happy about, though it’s taken time, there are reasons for that but we are trying to get it done quickly,” he said.

Onyeama explained that 47 career diplomats have already been screened by the committees on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly and waiting for approval from the larger senate.

“However, the senate had been on vacation but now that they will soon resume, we are hopeful that they will validate what the committee has done and we hope they do that quickly and we would start deploying those Ambassadors to various countries.

“We might, however, have to wait a little while for the political appointees to come on board because they will also have to go through the Senate screening.”

NAN reports that Onyeama also commended the staff of the Nigerian Permanent Mission for their hard work towards ensuring that Nigerian’s participation at the UNGA was successful. •Photo shows Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama.

Update news