Time to appoint ambassadors

NIGERIA may not have its ambassadors in place any time soon. This is a deplorable concern. Since 2023, President Bola Tinubu has failed to reappoint ambassadors to represent Nigeria abroad. Tinubu recalled all Nigerian ambassadors and high commissioners in September 2023, about four months after he assumed office. It is surprising that 14 months after the well-publicised recall, the re-appointment of ambassadors has taken a back seat. Tinubu should speedily act on this.

Citing his determination to “ensure that world-class efficiency and quality, will henceforth, characterise foreign and domestic service delivery to citizens, residents and prospective visitors alike,” Tinubu unilaterally booted out all the career and non-career ambassadors worldwide on September 2, 2023.

For a President who pledged to hit the ground running, correcting the perceived anomalies at the time seemed like a bold move. It is not again. Fourteen months later, the President seems confused and in reverse gear regarding this basic diplomatic administrative exercise. That should never be.

But the posting of consular officers has reportedly commenced.
For the record, Nigeria has 109 diplomatic missions worldwide, comprising 76 embassies, 22 high commissions and 11 consulates. Only the country’s United Nations permanent representatives in New York and Geneva were exempted from the blanket suspension.

Unfortunately, the ambassadors have been in limbo through no fault of theirs. It is worse for the career ambassadors.

For this class and the country, it is déjà vu all over again. A similar bureaucratic delay marred the tenure of then-President Muhammadu Buhari. Two months after he assumed office in 2015, Buhari recalled the ambassadors. After the Senate confirmation in 2020, Buhari waited until February 2021 before inducting and approving the posting of 95 ambassadors. Tinubu is in the same boat, if not worse.
Ambassadors play crucial roles for the country. They represent Nigeria abroad, maintain diplomatic relations with host countries, promote foreign policy, protect citizens, promote trade and investment, and gather information for Nigeria. Nigeria is suffering on these fronts.

Chargés d’affaires only oversee the diplomatic missions. Ordinarily, chargés d’affaires are temporary representatives of a country. They do not have the full diplomatic recognition of ambassadors. They function only as administrators in a foreign country and cannot hold meetings with ministers or the president.

The absence of ambassadors hinders Nigeria’s efforts to attract investment from abroad. For instance, it cannot fully benefit from the recent state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to Nigeria. Although the two countries inked bilateral agreements, India stands to benefit more as it has its high commissioner on the ground here. The Nigerian chargé d’affaires in Delhi is incapable of driving the agreements.

Foreign direct investment into Nigeria fell to $1.87 billion in 2023, a 1102.46 per cent decline from 2022. Nigeria needs its best hands abroad to reverse the decline.

Recently, Libya rubbished Nigeria during an international football engagement. The Nigerian contingent was maltreated and exposed to danger. Against decent international aviation practices, the Libyan authorities diverted the aircraft carrying the contingent from Benghazi Airport to the disused Al-Abraq Airport as the plane was about to land.

Genuine protests that the aeroplane was short on fuel did not matter to the Libyans. After achieving their morbid aim of destabilising the Super Eagles, they locked them in the airport for over 16 hours without food and water. They were supposed to travel four hours by road to the match venue in Benghazi but did not provide a bus! It took the Confederation of African Football to rescue Nigeria from the ignominy by fining Libya and awarding the three points in the match to the Eagles.
Currently, Nigeria and Ethiopia are wrangling over at least 270 Nigerians who are detained or imprisoned in that country. A Nigerian court has ordered the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission to repatriate the Nigerians. Ordinarily, this would have been seamless with an ambassador in Addis Ababa.
Soon after being sworn in on January 20, US President-elect Donald Trump will be meeting ambassadors, as is the tradition. Nigeria will be absent. There is no magic to make that happen.

Tinubu’s delay puts Nigeria in an unnecessary bind. In international diplomacy, it could take up to a year before a host country approves the ambassador of a home country. In simple terms, it is called an agrément. A host country is at liberty to reject or disapprove based on the policy. It means that Nigeria might not have ambassadors abroad in the first two years of Tinubu’s tenure because their names have not even been forwarded for Senate confirmation. An agrément is faster among African countries.

Yusuf Tuggar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has suggested that the funding is not there. He is wrong; it is not a question of money but a misplacement of priorities by the government and a misunderstanding of international diplomacy. The Tinubu administration cancelled petrol subsidies, which means more money for the government.

The same government shelled out N90 billion for the 2024 hajj subsidies. This is money badly spent and it costs a fraction of this to fund the air tickets of the ambassadors and their families to the overseas destinations.

Tinubu is putting the cart before the horse. It is ambassadors that will drive his vision of attracting the sorely needed FDI. Without ambassadors in place, Nigeria cannot benefit much from the President’s international trips, which have seen him in France, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, India, and China, among other stops. The President visited Brazil at the invitation of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva for the 19th G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Instructively, Nigeria is losing its vibrant voice in the international community. A country once highly reputed for its robust foreign policy, it is a bad turn for Nigeria.

In 1976, Nigeria effectively led the boycott of the Montreal Olympic Games in Canada because the International Olympic Committee refused to ban New Zealand, whose rugby team toured South Africa in defiance of the United Nations resolution of a total sporting embargo against the racist Apartheid regime. Twenty-five countries, mostly from Africa, joined Nigeria’s boycott. It was a significant card in the fight against apartheid as the international press focused on politics instead of sports, helping in the fight against racism in South Africa.
With material, moral, and financial support, Nigeria also ensured that Namibia gained independence from South Africa’s apartheid rule in 1990.

The delay is unacceptable. Tinubu should reorder his priorities on the diplomatic front and perform better than his predecessor, who waited endlessly after Senate confirmation before posting the ambassadors. The President should give Tuggar and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, a timeline to furnish him with the list of prospective ambassadors.

The Senate should do due diligence on them to avoid the embarrassment that occurred during the screening of Buhari’s nominees.

Nigeria needs all the support it can attract from the international community. To tap into this, Tinubu should cut out the delay, reappointing and posting ambassadors as soon as possible. The country and his administration will be better for it.