Let’s Go For Foreign Missions We Can Manage

By Levi Obijiofor…

President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive last week that the number and size of Nigeria’s foreign missions should be reviewed is timely. It is also well deserved especially as the previous governments ignored such an important reform. We live in difficult times. The Federal Government should not continue to maintain missions in those countries in which we do not have strong diplomatic ties, trade relations, military cooperation, or cultural affinity. The times are changing and a review is long overdue.

Buhari seems to have hinted what his preference would be when he told Paul Bulu Lolo, permanent secretary in the External Affairs Ministry: “Let’s keep only what we can manage. We can’t afford much for now. There’s no point in pretending.” Buhari believes the nation cannot afford to operate missions across the world when many of the missions have decrepit facilities and employ staff who are regularly owed salaries and allowances. That is a valid observation.

It is pointless for the government to set up diplomatic posts that have little or no capacity, or minimum funds and personnel to provide essential consular services to citizens who reside in various parts of the world and at the same time advance diplomatic relations with overseas countries.

Buhari also suggested the need to instil more discipline and a sense of duty on our diplomatic staff. He said: “Something has to be done so that we can get back our respectability as a country. Some people carry official passports and get involved in all sorts of negative acts. We need to do something about it.” It is about time the government worked hard to overturn the despicable image of the country. While it is true the image of our foreign missions has been tarnished for many years not only by the unfriendly behaviour of some diplomats and consular officials but also by their involvement in corrupt practices, nepotism, cronyism, and fraud, it would be too sanguine to see the foreign missions as the source of Nigeria’s poor image in the international community.

Crime and bad behaviour are not restricted to some diplomats who carry official passports. You will find that Nigerian citizens both at home and abroad, including senior public servants, businessmen and women, students, law enforcement officials, bankers, insurance executives, and other categories of civil society commit more crimes, perpetrate fraud, and break the laws of the nation (and the laws of their host countries, for those who reside overseas) with disregard. It is not necessarily consular staff who carry diplomatic passports who have contributed immensely to our appalling image in the world. So, if Buhari is looking to cleanse our stinking image, he might as well look closely at citizen groups at home more than those who serve in our embassies and high commissions in foreign countries.

The permanent secretary in the External Affairs Ministry was right on point when he identified some of the key problems that have undermined the effectiveness of our foreign missions. These include under-funding of the diplomatic posts, policy flip-flop, lack of training opportunities and professional development of staff.

Read also: Graffiti… How soon Will Buhari’s plane take off? by Levi Obijiofor

If we want quality foreign missions, if we want effective foreign missions that will implement the government’s foreign policy to the letter, we must be prepared to pay for those foreign missions. You cannot expect a diplomat who is owed months of salaries and allowances, who have little or no money to provide basic consular services to Nigerian citizens, to generate water from a rock. This is the reality that has confronted and still confronts many our foreign missions.

Many of our foreign missions are merely existing. You hear tales of frustration by diplomatic staff. You hear about how the foreign missions are receiving little or no support from the ministry in Abuja. While the ministry talks loosely about the need for the missions to implement and manage the fundamentals of Nigeria’s foreign policy as well as the objective principles that underpin that policy, there is little support provided to our foreign posts and the staff who administer the missions.

You hear about how hardworking and diligent staff are threatened with recall because they are serving as the shining light of what our foreign missions ought to be. Worst of all, you hear of accumulated salaries and allowances that are owed foreign missions and their staff who are supposed to provide basic consular services in their foreign posts. The missions are required to represent our national interests and to assist our citizens. The foreign missions are also important because they oversee and manage daily diplomatic relations between Nigeria and overseas countries.

Let me reinforce an earlier point. What is the merit in establishing and maintaining foreign missions that are poorly staffed and so poorly funded they can hardly afford to provide minimal services to citizens or advance Nigeria’s diplomatic relations with other countries?

In a move that marked a new policy direction in Nigeria’s relations with foreign countries, the former (now late) Foreign Affairs Minister, Olugbenga Ashiru, told newly appointed envoys-designate at an induction course conducted for them on 12 March 2013 that they should endeavour to operate in their countries of posting with the supreme policy of “strict reciprocity” in dealing with issues that concern the interests of Nigerians in their resident countries.

The Foreign Minister’s direction to the diplomats focused on three areas, specifically the adoption of a reciprocal policy that will shape how Nigeria deals with other countries, vigorous representation of Nigerian citizens abroad, as well as openness and accountability in their official duties. Ashiru aimed to elevate Nigeria’s image and visibility in the international community. If we want to change the way the world views us or the way the world conducts business with us, it is imperative that we must map out new and sound foreign policy objectives.

We have to show to our international partners that we have changed and we are now moving in a right direction, perhaps a new direction that Buhari is supposed to symbolise. This is one strategic way we can regain our battered face, polish our grubby integrity, and reclaim the respect that other countries used to bestow on us. For many years, Nigeria’s image has been sullied irretrievably through the criminal behaviour of our citizens at home and abroad. Africa used to be the pride and joy of our foreign policy. That is no longer the case because our benevolence to our fellow African countries has not been reciprocated or acknowledged in good faith.

Within Africa, those countries we regard as “brothers”, those countries we rush to support with strong financial and military aid, no longer treat us with respect. This is the outcome of an image that has taken a severe bashing in our continent and beyond. We no longer command the moral high ground that should earn us the admiration of other countries. If we cannot earn the respect of African countries, it means our foreign policy is weak and almost deceased. When our government officials place on public display their bad conduct at home and abroad, when they live corrupt lifestyles, we cannot expect any country to take us seriously.

A country that lives corruption, breathes corruption, exhales corruption, and dry-cleans bad behaviour in the public domain has no business expecting to be appreciated by other countries.

It has been said that, in diplomatic relations, respect is deserved and earned but not enforced. The advice given by the former Foreign Affairs Minister that our citizens who look for service or support from Nigerian diplomatic missions “must be treated with dignity” is apt. In various Nigerian foreign missions, consular officials have been reported to conduct themselves sometimes as if they are required to cater solely for their personal (self-centred) interests rather than the comfort, security, happiness, and welfare of their fellow citizens. There is a connection between bad behaviour by citizens at home and in the Diaspora and the appalling image that Nigeria gives off in overseas countries. Of course, good conduct by Nigerians will reflect encouragingly on our image.

We are fortunate in Australia because we have diplomatic staff and high commissioners who took the interests of Nigerian citizens as priority. The immediate past high commissioner, Ayo Olukanni, is one shining example. So too is his successor, the current Acting High Commissioner Mrs Cecilia O. Yahaya, who has responded impressively to the needs of Nigerian citizens in Australia, New Zealand, and other countries that fall within the responsibility of the mission in Australia. I must also mention the wonderful and commendable role that other diplomatic staff and immigration officials play in our mission in Australia.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now