Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
A Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party PDP, Alhaji Umar Gambo, has described the failure of President Bola Tinubu to appoint Ambassadors almost Two years in office as a clear show of lack of direction of the administration.
Gambo who made the assertion in a statement made available to our Correspondent said that the failure is not only unprecedented failure but shows Nigeria as not having a clear diplomatic policy under this administration.
He noted that apart from failure to appoint Ambassadors, the embassy Staff have continued to suffer various levels of unthinkable neglect from their country such that most of them can not even offset basic Bills.
“I am very concerned as a citizen of this country that our reputation before the international community is being dragged into the mud. This is nearly Two years since this seemingly clueless government took over the realms of power. It is unimaginable that as we speak, none of the 109 foreign missions has an ambassador.
“As if that is not enough damage, the staff are suffering unprecedented neglect to the extent that most of them can not even settle their basic Bills anymore. This is very embarrassing and a big blow to the reputation of this country.
“I don’t know who is advising Mr President but this is certainly a very wrong move in the wrong direction. Countries around the world don’t play with their eyes and ears in other countries. How can you maintain bilateral relations with other countries when you don’t have ambassadors in these countries?
“As we speak, no serious investor will come and put their funds in Nigeria because the first point of call is the embassy. So once they discover that the embassies are not even running and there is no ambassador, the message is clear; Nigeria has collapsed and is not worth doing business with.
“Ordinarily, most of the trips the president and his vice embark on to other countries are absolutely unnecessary if there were ambassadors to stand for them. But because they have failed to appoint Ambassadors for only God knows why, they have to personally travel for every little engagement”.
He urged the President to expediently appointment ambassadors to all the foreign missions so that national interests in these countries will be protected and to prioritise the wellbeing of foreign missions staff so that they don’t end up tempted to compromise on their patriotism to motherland.