President Bola Tinubu will announce his ambassadors within the next few weeks, one of his aides, Ademola Oshodi, has said.
Oshodi, a Senior Special Adviser on Foreign Affairs and Protocol to Tinubu, stated this on Channels Television’s 2024 Year-In-Review programme on Sunday.
“I believe in the next few weeks, there will be a pronouncement for the ambassadors, and steps will be taken by the Senate and accreditation to put them in place in their various missions around the world,” he said.
During the programme, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to the Benin Republic, Lawrence Obisakin; and former Nigeria’s High Commissioner In Australia, Ayoola Olukanni, faulted Tinubu’s non-appointment of ambassadors 16 months after he recalled all career and political ambassadors representing Nigeria overseas.
On September 2, 2023, some three months after Tinubu, an ex-Lagos governor, was inaugurated Nigeria’s President, he recalled all Nigerian ambassadors manning over 100 Nigerian embassies and high commissions from their host countries.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, had said the ambassadors served at the behest of the President in their host nations and it was the President’s “prerogative to send or recall them from any country”.
However, 16 months later, the President has not sent a list of fresh ambassadors to the Senate for approval and onward deployment to missions abroad despite that Nigeria has been playing host to the ambassadors of other countries with missions in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
Oshodi said his principal has been busy putting things in place for the envoys to be appointed and sent to foreign soils.
The presidential aide said, “The ambassadors are coming but the most important thing we should realise is that things are being put in place for the ambassadors and the high commissioners. We have chargé d’affaires to the nations, and consul generals that have been sent, more of a prelude to the ambassadors’ arrival.
“The foreign missions are not in dire straits. The president inherited missions that were not in great shape. So, things have to be put in shape and prepared for the ambassadors, and their families, dignitaries, diplomats, etc.
“It is something that the President and his administration are focused on. As much as the ambassadors are key, I want to clearly state that even the last administration, without giving excuses, took 20 months for them to put ambassadors in place.”
