ABUJA – President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a review of Nigeria’s foreign missions with an aim of pruning down the number and improving the quality of services rendered.
To this end, a presidential Committee would soon be formed do carry out a holistic exercise on the foreign missions.
At the moment, the country has a total 119 foreign missions which president Buhari said would be too expensive to maintain due to the economic downturn.
The president who gave the charge after he was briefed on the activities of Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Bulus Lolo and other officials of the Ministry, President Buhari said that it would be counter-productive operating missions all over the world “with dilapidated facilities and demoralized staff” when the need for some of the missions was questionable.
“Let’s keep only what we can manage. We can’t afford much for now. There’s no point pretending,” he said.
The President also called for the record of former government officials and other persons who were still in possession of diplomatic and official passports after leaving office, saying that his administration will take necessary action against them.
“Something has to be done so that we can get back our respectability as a country. Some people carry official passports and get involved in all sorts of negative acts. We need to do something about it,” President Buhari said.
Earlier, Ambassador Lolo told President Buhari that the challenges facing the Ministry included the absence of a Foreign Service Commission, poor funding of foreign missions, policy inconsistencies and training deficiencies, among others.
In an interview with State House Correspondents after the meeting, Lolo gave broader light on the activities of the mission and why it was necessary to prune down the number of embassies abroad.
He also stated the need to review the country’s foreign policy, saying that the last time a comprehensive report was done on that was 29 years ago.
He said “I underline the fact that the activities of the ministries and largely outside the country is 75 percent outside the country and 25 percent domestic that even though we do 25 percent of our work at home, foreign policy derives from domestic policy, there is a close nexus between country’s domestic and foreign policy.
“Our activities are handled by our missions abroad because the Ministry’s functions cover relations of country’s formulations and management of Nigeria’s foreign policy, getting and managing relations with other countries and all of these now crystalize into what opportunities there are and challenges.
“In the course of the briefing, I took Mr. President through the structure of the Ministry, mentioned the parastatals that are supervised by the Ministry, talked about the personnel of the Ministry and you know the bulk of them have the ambition of becoming ambassadors and we also talked about the state of our embassies abroad. All of these in the context of what Nigeria aspires to be at home, in the sub-region, in the continent and around the globe.
“Mr. President asked the Ministry to be realistic in terms of our representation abroad. We have 119 Missions. He asked the questions whether we need to have that number or we rationalize based on our capacity. Right now, the economy is looking down. We are trying to revive and revamp. It is a matter of time.
“Mr. President asked the Ministry to be realistic in terms of our representation abroad. We have 119 Missions. He asked the questions whether we need to have that number or we rationalize based on our capacity. Right now, the economy is looking down. We are trying to revive and revamp. It is a matter of time.
Presidential directive
The specific directive that he has given is that a committee be formed to look at the whole issue of our representation abroad, the size and the number of missions on whether or not the number should remain the same or we do something about those numbers.
The specific directive that he has given is that a committee be formed to look at the whole issue of our representation abroad, the size and the number of missions on whether or not the number should remain the same or we do something about those numbers.
Any Time frame?
“As soon as possible. Not specific time frame but he said the sooner, the better. Action needs to be taken.”
On the review of foreign policy direction
“I mentioned bringing the outcome of the retreat that was organised by the Ministry only last weekend to assess our delivery, capability and mechanism and maybe suggesting that the time has come. In the last comprehensive report was done in 1986. By next year, it will be 30 and I believe that even in the life of a child, you look back and ask, are you going in the right direction?
“The fundamentals of our foreign policy as defined by the objective of principles are not only sound but relevant. What changes is the nuance that governments and regimes bring from time to time. I took him through the themes of different regimes and evolution of Nigerian government policy starting with 1975 when the slogan was “Africa has come of age”.
“The President when he was in power 1983-1985 came up with the concentric circle concept. General Babangida as President from 1985 until he stepped outside came with two things: Concept of Medium powers as well as economic diplomacy.
Then under the late Yar’Adua, we dealt with citizen diplomacy and the last regime came with transformation agenda. We are now looking at them and crystalizing the priority of the present administration that has articulated security, the economy and the fight against corruption. All these will be important to our ministry and the mission abroad to take outside and explain to the rest of the world.
On the Effect of cutting down Missions abroad
“It is a function of interest and capacity. I believe what the president was saying to us is that we should cut our coat according to our material and not according to our size.”
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