Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, says the rejected list of 47 non-career ambassadors will be re-submitted when the Senate resumes from recess.

Onyeama told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York that the list was being delayed by the recess.

“The list of the 47 non-career ambassadors will be represented to the Senate; yes, I believe the list is ready.

“And very shortly it will be represented; it is just that the Senate is in recess at the moment but hopefully it will be done very quickly.

“We will certainly hope that we will get the envoys in place very shortly. The lists are ready; the places of deployment have more or less been approved.”

The nation, he said, hope to get them on board very quickly.

He, however, said that the delay in the posting of ambassadors to Nigerian missions had not affected the country’s diplomatic relations with the host countries or the operations of those missions.

“What we have seen, I think, is probably the quality of the Nigerian diplomats. We have nevertheless been able to achieve very great things with the officials that we have in the missions.

“So that shows the depth of the quality of Nigerian diplomats. A good case in point here is this issue of illicit financial flows.

“It’s something that has been achieved without having an ambassador here or permanent representative here in New York.”

Meanwhile, the 47 career Ambassador-designate approved recently have ended their four-day induction course in readiness for their posting.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, has urged the 47 newly appointed career Ambassadors to explore possibilities of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Abuja.

Bello made the call when the new Ambassadors paid him a working visit in Abuja.

He said that the FDI would help end recession and create new opportunities for residents of the FCT.

The minister told the ambassadors of the enormous investment opportunities in the territory which needed marketed to investors across the world.

Bello disclosed that the Idu Industrial Layout had been provided with adequate infrastructure to encourage investment in the FCT.

According to him, the FCT Administration has also provided an enabling environment and liberal conditions to support genuine investors.

He reminded them that Abuja as the only city created by law in Nigeria was home to all Nigerians and the window through which the world see the country. The minister assured that the administration would continue to adhere strictly to the Abuja Master Plan to ensure orderliness in the city.

“All of you have Abuja as either first or second home; you know all the challenges of the Federal Capital Territory, because all of you live here and therefore you can best market the city by bringing in FDI to tackle all those challenges,” he said.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Sola Enikanolaiye, who led the group, said the visit was part of the induction programme organised for the new ambassadors.

He said it was to acquaint them with the ingredients of government policies.

“This is in terms of protocol and its priority in terms of domestic agenda which is built on change, good governance, economic, security and anti-corruption.

“This is to help identify the foreign policy component of the government programme to enable the new ambassadors go out there to engage and advance the domestic agenda of Nigeria,” Enikanolaiye added. (NAN)

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