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Embassy of
Nigeria in Vienna, Austria
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Some ex-diplomats and
experts on international affairs have backed President Muhammadu Buhari’s call
for a review of the number of Nigeria’s foreign missions abroad, saying that
they should be cut by at least 60. The experts and ex-diplomats, who said the number
of Nigerian missions abroad was too many, disclosed this in separate interviews
with our correspondents on Friday.
They
said Nigeria’s economy, which has recently been on a downturn, could not
sustain its 119 foreign missions.
Buhari
recently ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review the number of
Nigeria’s foreign missions abroad, which are set to cost the country ₦34bn
in 2015.
The Punch report continues:
Commenting
on the issue, former ambassador to Sudan and Morocco, Bola Dada, urged the
Federal Government to prune its foreign missions to between 40 and 50 because
of the economic downturn.
Dada
suggested that the government should only maintain embassies in neighbouring
countries and other countries that are strategic to Nigeria’s interests.
He
said, “I am in total support of the pruning of Nigerian embassies. Even at best
of times, Nigeria should not have more than 60 embassies. And now that there is
economic downturn in the country, the country should have between 40 and 50
embassies.
“It should not be more than 50. Our economy is
in a shambles, we should not pretend all is well. It is quite expensive to
maintain an embassy, a lot goes into it.
“In
Europe, Nigeria must have embassies in Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. In
Arab Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, and one or two others will do. Nigeria must not
leave out Japan, China and India in the Asia axis.
“In
whatever number the country will eventually pick or retain, the committee responsible
for the review must give comprehensible brief on each country to justify having
an embassy there.”
A
former ambassador to Greece and Australia, Prof. Olu Agbi, also said that
“there are a few countries where our interests are minimal and even where
Nigerians are not many and where we can reduce our presence there and increase
our presence in some other countries.”
He
added that the country’s resources cannot adequately maintain its number of
foreign missions.
Agbi
said, “Does Nigeria have enough resources to take care of all the foreign
missions? The answer is no. We don’t have the resources. Even when I was an
ambassador, we experienced a lot of shortfall in funding. Sometimes for about
three, four months, ambassadors and staff were not paid their salaries. It was
that bad so when you have too many missions, most of our diplomats abroad will
be suffering.”
A
professor of International law and jurisprudence, Akin Oyebode, described
diplomacy as an expensive venture, noting that “a full complement of an embassy
will have the ambassador, the minister counsellor, the first secretary, second
secretary, third secretary, immigration attaché for passport, trade attaché,
student attaché, apart from consular services for visa and other things. So, it
is a very elaborate process.”
He
said, “So, we have to rationalize and take a global look at our embassies, shut
down some and ask some embassies for multiple accreditations. For instance, an
embassy in Turkey can take care of Philippines and Singapore. We reduce the
number and increase the accreditation to save cost.
“In Africa, we might retain
Addis Ababa because of the African Union; Pretoria or Johannesburg because
South Africa is important, and then Ghana. We might not need in Sierra Leone.
In the America, you shut some consulates, maybe New York permanent mission and
keep Washington DC, we might close down Mexico and Venezuela.”
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