By Stephen Angbulu and Gift Habib
President Bola Tinubu will spend part of his holiday in Lagos considering the final list of prospective Nigerian envoys to various countries and international organisations, PUNCH can report.
Reliable sources close to the President confirmed that Tinubu has “activated” the process of appointing the envoys.
However, our correspondents gathered that the process suffered delays due to the paucity of funds required to pay arrears of foreign service officials, settle a backlog of overheads, replace ageing vehicles and renovate embassy buildings.
Almost $1bn is required to foot the bills, a source told our correspondent.
President Tinubu is currently in Lagos for the Christmas and New Year holidays. Upon assuming office in May 2023, he reassessed Nigeria’s foreign policy, leading to the recall of the 83 career and non-career ambassadors from their stations in September 2023.
Nigeria has 109 missions, 76 embassies, 22 high commissions, and 11 consulates globally.
Although senior officials with knowledge of the developments said Tinubu would transmit the names of ambassadorial nominees to the National Assembly before the end of December, new updates show that the President changed his mind.
An official who spoke anonymously revealed, “Right now, Baba [President Tinubu] has activated the process of appointment of envoys. He has asked that the final list of names be submitted to him for review in Lagos, and those names will undergo security and background checks again before they are appointed.
“Then, their names will be sent to the Senate for screening. They are considering the list now while the President is in Lagos.
“If you remember, we were expecting the list to be out before this year runs out; that process may take until January now.”
“That will be in January. I understand that, as of this morning, the final list is ready,” another senior official in the Presidency told one of our correspondents.
Feelers in the foreign service show that concerns continue to grow as the country’s foreign missions are left without top envoys.
Experts also warn that Nigeria’s ‘absence’ from the international stage could have long-term consequences for its reputation.
Others say host governments may question why Nigeria had not sent new envoys 15 months after the big recall, potentially seeing the prolonged absence as a sign of instability.
However, 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 it is released,” he said.
However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, attributed the delay to financial constraints.
“It is a money problem,” Tuggar said during a ministerial sectoral briefing in Abuja in May.
Tuggar 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 country and to run the missions effectively, one needs funding.
“Mr President is working on it, and it will be done in due course,” Tuggar explained.
Nonetheless, the foreign minister did not state how much is needed to send out new envoys.
Senior Presidency and Foreign Service officials say the country needs around $1bn to clear backlogs of bills and adequately finance its 109 missions, 76 embassies, 22 high commissions and 11 consulates globally.
One official said, “You see, the major issue is money. Not money to pay them [ambassadors], because how much is their salary 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 really 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 an ambassador there today, you’re sending them to trouble.”
Another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to talk to the press, explained that the unpaid allowances of foreign service officers added to the backlog.
The official said, “When they say there is no money, it is not money to pay ambassadors. Most of that money is the arrears of allowances for the foreign service workers. The idea is, why do you want to send an ambassador to where he will meet problems? Why don’t you solve those problems first before you send them there?
“The money required now is for CAPEX to fix some of the residences and embassies, purchase vehicles and pay some of the arrears and overheads for some foreign service officers. Some of them are being owed seven to eight months’ allowances. Some of them are owing rent. The President is trying to iron that out before announcing the list.”
Speaking to one of our correspondents, a foreign service staff member in one of the missions said, “If you send an ambassador here now, the embassy staff may look up to the ambassador to solve their problems. And the ambassador will be helpless.
“It’s even understandable now because the Head of Chancery and Chargés d’affaires are civil servants like everyone here. So, we’re all in the same boat. But once you send a political head like an ambassador, it’s like sending a president.” (Punch)
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