Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has said that the list of the 47 non-career ambassadors rejected by the Senate will be resubmitted when the upper legislative chamber resumes from its recess.
Onyeama told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York that the list was being delayed by the recess.
“The list of the 47 non-career ambassadors will be represented to the Senate; yes, I believe the list is ready.
“And very shortly it will be represented; it is just that the Senate is in recess at the moment but hopefully it will be done very quickly.
“We will certainly hope that we will get the envoys in place very shortly. The lists are ready; the places of deployment have more or less been approved.
“So we hope to get them on board very quickly. Ideally, you always want to have your full compliment of staff in your missions,” the Minister said.
He, however, said that the delay in the posting of ambassadors to Nigerian missions had not affected the country’s diplomatic relations with the host countries or the operations of those missions.
“What we have seen, I think, is probably the quality of the Nigerian diplomats. We have nevertheless been able to achieve very great things with the officials that we have in the missions.
“So that shows the depth of the quality of Nigerian diplomats. A good case in point here is this issue of illicit financial flows.
“It’s something that has been achieved without having an ambassador here or permanent representative here in New York.
“So I think it shows you that again, but notwithstanding, our diplomats are up to the task,” Onyeama said.
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