By Owei Lakemfa
The culture in Nigeria is that after Presidential Elections, politicians, hangers-on, propagandists, relatives and a rainbow of persons gather like ants over sugar. Primarily, the gathering is to partake of the honey which is how they see the emergent government.
In fact, for many, elections are the best investment they can make, and they need to quickly recoup the funds invested. The Tinubu administration has so far, exhibited the symptoms of that national disease.
The first race is for ministerial positions where the competent is
usually crowded out by the desperate. So, usually, bright, competent persons
with a sense of commitment and unique skills to offer, are left out.
After the 100 metres dash for
ministerial slots is completed, the next race is to fill the positions of
government institutions including agencies. The third race for those who might
have lost out in the two previous races is to fill board appointments.
After this, the race shifts to
the filling of ambassadorial slots as many politicians and the boys see this as
part of the electoral booty to share.
In my view, just as President
Tinubu unadvisedly threw the country of over 200 million into a cataclysmic
spin by withdrawing the fuel subsidy which had provided some stability for the
populace, so also has he committed the same avoidable mistake as the
uninspiring Buhari administration by removing all our ambassadors without ready
replacements. The only exceptions were the two United Nations, UN Permanent
Representatives in New York and Geneva. Both were exempted only for the
purposes of the then-upcoming UN General Assembly.
No country that sacks all its
ambassadors, leaving every mission in the hands of charge d’ affairs ad
interim, that is somebody temporarily deputising for an absent ambassador, is
taken seriously.
Another major pitfall of the
Buhari administration which I advise President Tinubu to avoid in the abiding
interest of Nigeria, is the temptation of appointing ambassadors as compensation
to acolytes.
This culture is a tragedy that
has befallen the country since 1979. Researchers, Ademola Azeez and Segun
Oshewole writing in the September 30, 2021 edition of The Round Tab the
Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, said the appointment
of non-career ambassadors in the Murtala-Obasanjo military regime was almost
nil. This malaise, they said began with the Shagari administration
which compensated the party faithful with over 30 ambassadorial slots. The
Maradonic Babangida regime maintained this number, while Obasanjo, as elected
President, took this to an all-high level of about 70! They reported that the
Buhari administration had 60 non-career ambassadors to 40 career ambassadors.
Some may argue that this is the
culture amongst cowboys, so? How can some otherwise knowledgeable people always
point at bad examples for us to follow and not good ones?
Let me state categorically; I am not saying that non-careerists should
not be appointed ambassadors. We may have people with exceptional
skills, experience or relationship with particular countries which can be
useful for us. What I am emphasizing is that such should be the exception and
not the rule.
For instance, compensating
Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai with ambassadorial posting to Benin
Republic after his January 28, 2021 removal as Chief of Army Staff, was
unpatriotic. As it turned out, his skills as a soldier and a snake merchant,
were useless in that country.
The height of such thoughtless
appointment was reached in 2017 when Buhari appointed 82-year-old Justice
Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor as Ambassador to the United States. The man could
hardly walk! Nsofor had in the 2003 Presidential Election Panel,
given a dissenting opinion in the contest between then President Obasanjo, and
his All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP challenger, retired General Muhammadu
Buhari. A dozen years later, Buhari won the presidency and apparently decided
to compensate the retired justice with an ambassadorial posting without
enquiring about Nsofor’s health!
There was another non-career
ambassador whose health status was not ascertained before his appointment.
After getting to our mission, he simply spent his time travelling for medicals.
For some of the politicians,
going on ambassadorial posting is like being sent to Siberia. In
any case, such posting does not stop their political ambitions. For instance,
the appointment of Olu Agbi, a professor of diplomatic history as
Ambassador to Greece and Australia could ordinarily, not be faulted.
But he had political ambitions and left his posting in Australia in
September 2010 to come and run for elections. In his absence, our Mission there
was unmanned.
It should also be pointed out
that the salaries and allowances of our ambassadors cannot be compared with
those of Ministers and other political appointees, so some of the non-career
ambassadors are simply frustrated. This may be responsible for some of
such persons, carting away furniture and other property when they leave our
missions. It is unlikely that a career ambassador who is a public servant with
severance pay and pension to collect, would engage in such recklessness.
As we know, some of our missions
cover multilateral institutions like those on environment. A non-career
ambassador who was the Secretary of a Local Government Commission, was
appointed ambassador to one of such missions. He of course, had no clue about
the multilateral bodies in which he was supposed to represent the country.
For every politician appointed
an ambassador, a career diplomat is deprived an ambassadorial posting.
Also, our ambassadorial
appointments should not be a reward system for politicians. So, I
suggest that President Tinubu reverses this ugly trend by
appointing career diplomats as ambassadors with a sprinkling of non-career
ambassadors. The advantages include the fact that the former would have
spent a minimum 25 years in service, trained to advance the country’s interests
internationally, been exposed to various aspects of diplomacy, and have
institutional memory.
Appointing mainly career
ambassadors would also ensure that many of them spending the statutory 35 years
in service, would cap their careers with ambassadorial postings rather than be
ambassador in situ.
Also, it is career diplomats
that can best translate into practice the Tinubu administration’s
4D foreign policy of Democracy, Demography, Diaspora and Development.
My experiences as President of a think tank on foreign affairs, the Society for International Relations Awareness, SIRA, as a former ambassador in the African Union, AU representing the African Workers, and my wide travels including across dozens of African countries, revealed that Nigeria has some of the most intelligent, knowledgeable, resourceful and experienced diplomats in the world.
Where diplomats from many African countries may be intimidated or
afraid to articulate positions contrary to those of powerful countries,
Nigerian diplomats are not afraid. There is no reason we cannot build on
such a huge resource rather than fritter such power away as compensation
for politicians.
*Lakemfa
is a commentator on public issues
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