- A senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has decried the Nigerian government's attitude towards the problem facing the country's foreign missions
- Senator Sani said government is not serious about running foreign missions despite the fact that Nigeria has the resources
- He said Nigeria has virtually turned its staff and diplomats in its foreign missions into beggars
A senator has lamented the body language of the Nigerian government towards the problem facing the country's foreign mission.
NAIJ.com gathered that Senator Shehu Sani of the All Progressives Congress who is representing Kaduna Central, expressed his displeasure on Tuesday, December 19, at the budget defence by the ministry of foreign affairs before the Senate joint committee on foreign affairs and diaspora.
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He got angry when the foreign affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, despite lamenting poor funding of Nigeria's diplomatic operation, commended the federal government and the minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, after presenting the ministry's 2018 budget estimates, Premium Times reports.
The ministry has budget estimates of N62 billion (N62,092,198,465) including an overhead cost of N23 billion (N23,277,621,873).
It was learnt that Onyeama had lamented poor funding for the ministry as well as diplomats and foreign missions, saying the headquarters and missions 'are still heavily indebted'.
After he finished with his presentation, he said: "I commend the federal government…Of course we are not sitting down with our arms folded. We are doing the best we can to improve this situation. We have raised some issues at the Federal Executive Council meeting.
“I have to really thank the minister of finance who has really been doing her best and trying to come up with ways to address some issues.”
However, the minister's remark did not go down well with Senator Sani. The senator accused the government of not being serious about running foreign missions.
He said: “Before my question, I’ll like to make a few remarks about the overview of what has been said. It is very clear to me and to Nigerians that we are not serious about running our foreign missions.
“I heard you itemize all these problems ranging from unfair funding to neglect to absence of insurance policies to virtual collapse of the state of our foreign missions.
“And then I heard you commending the president and the minister of finance. So we should blame the ghost? Or who, for goodness’ sake?
“When will this problem come to an end? Year in year out, it is very clear that the government is not serious about intervening to adjust the problems of our foreign missions.
“We are not a country without the resources to intervene. We have virtually turned our staff and diplomats in our foreign missions into beggars, embarrassing our country, disgracing ourselves.
“A country like Cuba has over 160 embassies globally and they take care of them. We must solve this problem once and for all,” he said.
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He lamented the state of Nigerian embassies, saying that Nigeria was not living to expectation as the giant of Africa.
He said: “When you go to our embassies, there are toilets, you can’t flush. They will live in hotels. Their cars have no fuel, we cannot service the electricity bill, no water bill, no nothing.
“They are giving quit notice to our people. A country that portrays itself as an African giant! We are just not serious about these things.”
“From 2015 that I got to this place, we talked and talked. 2016, we talked. Now again, we are talking. They are releasing money to you people as if you’re beggars. Everyday people call me on phone from different parts of the world and we are here on the same ritual again.
“The presidency of Nigeria is not serious about our foreign missions. People are afraid to say it. You’ll say there is problem, this one is bad, that one is bad and then you’ll end it with commendations. Who are you commending?
“This problem is man-made. We are deliberately refusing to release money even for simple things that don’t require money. To even put foreign ambassadors of Nigeria on a schedule to see the president takes four to six months, sitting down in Abuja doing nothing."
“Niger Republic, Benin Republic, Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Cape Verde can all take care of their embassies. What type of giants are we?"
He, however, directed the minister to make a documentation of all the problems that the ministry is facing as well as possible solutions.
He added: “Write out a recommendation for this so we can solve this problem once and for all. Let’s have a document which is free from this budgetary grammar; Nigeria’s Foreign Mission: Problems and Solutions, and include all the cost."
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that a report by Sahara Reporters indicated that there was a major fraud ongoing in the ministry of foreign affairs.
According to the report, the fraud happened through diversion and misuse of millions of dollars allocated to cover shortfalls in the over 100 embassies and consular offices.
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Source: Naija.ng
ROSY CREST
Wednesday, 20 December 2017