Buhari NominNominates 47 Ambassadors

President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated 47 people as ambassador designate, all of them career officers. Senate President Bukola Saraki read the names of the nominees during yesterday’s session. The president’s letter dated June 6, 2016 requested the Senate to give the confirmation hearing “the usual prompt attention.” The nominees’ curriculum vitae were attacked to the letter. The nominees are Obinna Chukwuemeka Agbugba (Abia), Salisu Umaru (Adamawa), Paragalda Ilyasu Audu (Adamawa), Inyan Udo-Inyang (Akwa Ibom), Okeke Vivian Nwunaku (Anambra), Nonye Udo (Anambra), Liman Munir (Bauchi), Ndem Jane The selection criteria It was gathered that the selection criteria for nomination of career diplomat was not different from what was done in the past. The nominees, our report learnt, are deputy directors and directors who are on level 15 and above. Of the 47 nominees from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, seven are deputy directors, while others are directors. A source from the ministry who preferred not to be named said among the criteria considered for nomination was that each of the nominees “must have at least 30 months (two and half years) to serve before retirement.” He said this was different from the procedure during the previous administrations where diplomats with less than two years to retirement were considered. The law, according to the source, says a nominee (career diplomat) must be in the “field of selection” which means that he/she must be senior enough to be considered for selection. The selection, he added, must also reflect the principle of federal character - “At least, one or two nominees from each state.” On the ratio of political and career diplomats, the source said “The law says, 70 to 30. That is 70 career diplomats to 30 non-career ones. The ministry, he added, is still pushing for more career diplomats for selection. “It is better if we have more experienced diplomats overseeing diplomatic affairs at the missions abroad.” Expert opinion A retired diplomat, Ambassador Sulaiman Dahiru, commended the nomination just as he urged the National Assembly to fast-track the confirmation hearing.  He said this is necessary so that the process of securing “agrément” for the nominees can begin, which he said could take months to secure. Diplomatic courtesy requires that before a state appoints a new chief of diplomatic mission to represent it in another state, it must be first ascertained whether the proposed appointee is acceptable to the receiving state. The acquiescence of the receiving state is signified by its granting its agreement to the appointment. It is rare for an “agreement” to be refused, but it occasionally happens. “In some countries, it takes as long as 2 to 3 months to secure agrément. We are in June, some envoys may not resume until October,” he said. The retired diplomat, meanwhile, said he “wondered” why it took so long before the government to nominate ambassadors. “This is not good for the country because we have some challenges and it is only substantive ambassadors that can give us what we want.  They are the representative of the country in their various countries of posting and there is a limit to what charge d’Affaires can do,” he said. He also said there are some missions - like that of United Kingdom, United States, China and permanent mission in New York – that must not be left without substantive ambassadors. This, he said, is because of their importance to Nigeria’s economic development. On appointment of non-career ambassadors, Ambassador Dahiru said “I want to see more of the nominee to be career diplomats. But if we are to consider political appointment, we shouldn’t have more than 25%. “Having more non-career ambassadors at the foreign missions is not good for the country because they don’t have the experience. The diplomatic work would be more of a learning process for them. And a career diplomat who is more experienced in diplomacy may not like to work under someone (non-career diplomat) without any experience. It is a psychological issue.” Some senior officials fail to make it A source in the Foreign Affairs ministry said some of the more senior officials on level 17 who were hopeful of being appointed as ambassadors are disappointed as a number of them failed to secure nomination. An example is that of Katsina state where a relatively junior official was picked over 3 more senior foreign ministry officials. Daily Trust learnt that in such cases the senior officials may get the ambassadorial title without a posting before their retirement. A source familiar with the matter says that the government may be trying to avoid a situation such as what happened in the past when foreign service officials with a year or so to retirement are appointed thereby leading to a high turnover of such posting that once made India to present a formal complaint. Nigeria has a total of 112 or 119 embassies, missions and consulates. It is not clear if the list of 47 career diplomats sent for senate approval is just a first list of such nominees from the rank of career officials or if President Muhammadu Buhari will nominate politicians to fill in the other vacancies. One source told Daily Trust that it is possible that in the spirit of cost cutting, some of the ambassadors may be assigned to more than one country. At the moment almost all Nigerian embassies and missions are being run by non substantive ambassadors following the recall of both career and non career ambassadors nearly a year ago.