Buhari to ambassadors, sorry we’ve just little to fund our missions abroad

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed regret that his administration lacks enough resources to fund the country’s foreign missions

He however expressed optimism that by 2019 all the external factors that contributed to the present recession in the country will become a thing of the past as the Federal Government is determined to turn the nation’s economy around.

According to the statement released by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari stated this on Monday in Abuja while declaring open an induction course organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Nigerian Career Ambassadors-designate who were recently cleared by the Senate.

“We are optimistic that the external factors that partly contributed to push our economy into recession will ebb in 2017. Until then, I regret that the resources available to fund our missions abroad will not be as robust as we would like.

“We are working hard to turn around our national economy by effectively reforming our macroeconomic environment through measures, some of which were outlined in my budget speech to the National Assembly last week,” the President said.

Read also: Angry Buhari summons Kachikwu over NNPC’s poor revenue earnings

The president, who said the prevailing economic circumstances have led to a restructuring of Nigerian missions abroad, reminded the Ambassadors-designate that , “as we are all making great sacrifices at home, we also expect you to similarly make judicious use of the resources put at the disposal of your missions. As Heads of missions, you will be held accountable for the utilisation of all resources under your control. These are lean times, and all of us are expected to do more with less.”

He therefore charged the ambassadors-designate to change the narrative of Nigeria outside the country by playing up the positive values and outstanding contributions of Nigerians in the global arena.

He said, “I want to emphasise your duty to change the narrative of Nigeria as seen by the outside world. For far too long, we have allowed Nigeria to be defined by others, always emphasizing our negatives. To the average foreigner, Nigeria evokes 419, terrorism, militancy, communal and religious clashes, insecurity, corruption and all our other faults.”

 

 

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