Mohammed Shosanya
The Dean of Non Career Ambassadors of Nigeria has accused the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusufu Tuggar of deliberately lying against them and misleading the public about facts relating to their recent recall.
They accused the Minister of deliberately feigning ignorance of the letter the Ambassadors wrote to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seeking for extension of terminal date to December 31, 2023 as against October 31, 2023, in order to enable their children conclude their examinations.
The diplomats faulted the Minister’s insinuations that the Ambassadors, whose recall was announced on September 2, were lobbying prominent Nigerians to extend their stay, and that the Minister placed embargo on expenditures by the outgoing ambassadors to curtail alleged moves by some of them to mop up funds in their embassies.
In a statement signed by Mr. Chris Mayor, Special Assistant to the Dean, None-Career Ambassadors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Nwanne Omeinyi, and made available to journalists in Enugu on Tuesday, the envoys regretted what they referred to as “the Minister’s resort to blackmail and utter misrepresentation”.
The Ambassadors insisted that the said letter to the president requesting for extension of time was by the consent of the Minister whom they channeled the request to at first as is the practice before presenting it to the President.
“The envoys view his folte-face as treachery and backstabbing.”
The statement reads, “The attention of the Dean of Non Career Ambassadors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been drawn to the publication credited to one Mr. Alkasim Abdulkadir Special assistant to the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Tuggar, on Media and Communication published in the Newspaper on 26th October 2023.
“In the said publication, the author alleged that Non-Career Ambassadors are lobbying prominent personalities to extend their stay.
“Ordinarily we would have ignored the publication but for the obligation we owe Nigerians and our friends and partners at the international community to be properly informed and the fact that dignity and integrity, intelligence and accuracy, and sensibility in speech is required from occupants of the exalted office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“Regrettably, these attributes are conspicuously absent in the publication above. Firstly, the starvation which the Missions and Embassies are going through for the Ministry’s failure in remittance of their overhead allocation for five months running now is in public domain.
“So where are the funds which a source according to the author learnt that the alleged move to mop up funds in their embassies by the Ambassadors, when it is as well in the public domain that the Ambassadors have resorted to using their savings to run the missions and embassies and service providers are threatening court actions against Missions?”.
The statement emphasized that the present class of Ambassadors both Career and Non-Career have distinguished themselves as men and women of high integrity, as eloquently expressed by the erstwhile Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Geoffrey Onyeama, whom together they made some modest achievements.
The envoys stated that contrary to the claim of Mr. Alkasim that the Ministry has completed as at 24th October 2023 sending the money for Ambassadors passages to return home, that the information was misleading as none of the Envoys has received such money as at today 30th October 2023 and that the information filtering from headquarters was that a circular was to be sent to missions to source (borrow) money to pay for the envoys passages.
“I urge the Special Assistant to the Honourable Minister to please find out from his boss and report to the public: (1) whether or not he was consulted before the Ambassadors wrote him for the extension of date to 31st December 2023; (2) Whether or not he was in receipt of the letter to that effect dated September 8, 2023; (3) Whether or not he assured his erstwhile colleagues that he was going to present their request to Mr. President and; (4) whether he did present the request to His Excellency Mr President.”
The statement noted that the Envoys would not sit down and watch their hard earned reputation dragged in the mud.
“The envoys will in due course and not long, address the public as it is important to discharge this obligations for the overall well-being of the 4Ds foreign policy directions of the Renewed Hope mantra of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government,” he noted.
