The federal government has explained why most of the ambassador designates have not been deployed to their various missions, pledging that by July this year, necessary procedures would have been completed and the diplomats would be deployed.
This explanation was offered by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, during a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday.
Enikanolaiye said that at the moment certain preliminary procedures for the deployment of some ambassadors were yet to be completed.
He however added that the ministry had started receiving ‘agreemo’ from various countries around the world.
‘Agreemo’ is a memorandum from one country to another agreeing to the appointment of an ambassador or envoy.
The permanent secretary explained that “there are three groups of ambassadors.”
“The first group, to which Professor (Tijani) Bande belongs, has been announced and professor Bande has resumed here in New York.
“Ambassador Audu Kadiri in Geneva has also resumed. We expect that Ambassador Bankole Adeoye going to Addis Ababa should resume in the next couple of days. That’s the very first group.
“The second group of ambassadors, which was drawn largely from the career category, has also been deployed.
“We’ve started to receive ‘agreemo’, which is consent of the receiving states from some of them. And we expect that in the next couple of weeks, they should also assume duties.
“What we’re waiting for is the deployment of the non-career; that has not been concluded; it’s ongoing. We expect that should be completed also in the next couple of weeks.
“So that, minus or plus, in the next two months, most of our ambassadors should have assumed in their various posts abroad.”
Enikanolaiye further said that the financial challenges experienced by most Nigerian missions abroad had been resolved as more funds have been disbursed to them.
He said: “The state of the Nigerian missions abroad has been a major concern to government, particularly in the area of funding.
“But I can announce that the situation is poised to improve because additional funding has been provided by government and are currently being disbursed.
“We believe that upon receipt of those funds, they would be able to at least come out of the woods.
“But we need to look into a more sustainable manner of funding Nigerian missions so that they would not go back into the era of huge indebtedness from which they are now trying to come out at this time.”
It is worthy of note that on assuming office, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government recalled all the ambassadors appointed by the previous administration in 2015, leaving Nigeria’s foreign missions under the control of Chargé d’Affaires or Counsel-Generals.