Nigeria is facing significant diplomatic challenges due to delays in the formal acceptance of its ambassador designates by host countries, stemming from concerns over short tenures tied to the current administration's limited time before the next election.
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Since the nomination of ambassador
designates, concerns have arisen over
the acceptance by host countries due to
time constraints on their tenure.
Highranking officials in the presidency
and the foreign service disclosed that
the ministry of foreign affairs was
grappling with the challenge of securing
Agrammon the formal consent of receiving
states for the nominees. According to
them, several countries may insist that
ambassadors have a minimum tenure period
of a year or two tied to the life of the
sending country's administration. With
the next presidential election scheduled
for February 2027 and Tinubu's first
tenure set to conclude in May that year,
the officials expressed concerns that
host countries may be reluctant to
accept many of the envoys for now.
joining us on the show to discuss the
possible reason for non-posting of
ambassadors designate to their
respective countries and how this is
affecting Nigeria's relations with
foreign countries is Dr. Kun Fagi a
political scientist good morning Dr.
Fagami, you're most welcome to the
>> Good morning. Ha. Thank you very much
for having me. And you got very good
African braids on.
>> You have to start on
any quickly to the point now. Isn't the
problem that we're facing now
foreseeable and avoidable
with the posting of ambassador decimate
uh in the sense that any elementary
student of diplomacy we know that it's
not automatic that you just send uh the
name of an ambassador and then the
person will be accepted and in any case
an agreement can take months
sometimes even one year and that the
receiving host country may even say no.
So where does this leave our designated
ambassadors uh who may not even go for
any posting till uh till the end of this
>> Yeah. Thank you very much Dr. Abati for
having me and asking this question the
way you've just done. Interestingly,
it's a confirmation of the challenges
that we have been facing with the incumbent
incumbent
APCled administration under President
Balahmed Tinumbu. They are operating a
very dysfunctional presidency and
diplomatic service. Like you rightly
said, every elementary student of
diplomatic practice or diplomacy of
foreign affairs understands that the
Vienna Convention
is very explicit on what ought to be.
Article three talks about the fact that
you should have a mission. Article four
talks about the agri board that we are
all making reference to which
automatically means that if you have a
mission in any country you want to
maintain the operations of that mission
at the highest level possible for
correct interface. So when in September
2023, President Tinumbu decided to
recall all these ambassadors back, if a
number of the officials in the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs were very conversant
with the provisions of the Vienna
Convention on Diplomatic Relations and
some of the protocol instruments there
from and there to. They would have
understood that you must make sure that
within the maximum of 90 days you need
to have appointed another ambassador as
it were and or appoint a special envoy
that will cover the jurisdiction.
Unfortunately, all of us are very aware
of the facts in public domain. Nothing
was done between September 2023 and
until Q3
of 2025 when we now started having a
list of first four names and then you
now had another additional list that was
sent to the national assembly. If that
is the case, it means that we are having
challenges of institutional memory and
continuity of governance services
delivery. Diplomatic practice and
foreign affairs matters are deep state
craft issues. And when you are handling
state craft issues, you understand that
the appointment of ambassadors because
you know that article 4 of the Vienna
convention talks about the agree. A
number of the issues would have been
done at back channels and behind the
scene that by the time you are even
mentioning a particular name that name
is as good as already adopted and by all
the stakeholders everybody is going to
be working towards achieving that. So if
you have a dysfunctional precedency like
we have currently that issues statement
without thinking take for instance in
the last 40 hours the certain bayona
issued a statement concerning Nigeria UK
relations and making reference to the
fact that 37 year had passed before
Nigeria is initiating another state
visit. Meanwhile, in 2003, the Queen of
England came to Nigeria and we've had
series of interfaces which were supposed
to have been referenced by him to prove
to the fact that we are maintaining a
very robust relationship with the United
Kingdom. So we have entered a one chance
bus as it were and it is unfortunate
that these ambassadors designate are
going to be on the receiving end of a
wrong stick. Mindful of the fact that it
is clearly understood that you cannot operate
operate
a situation where you do not have your
embassy properly managed for over 18
months like we have done 24 months plus
and going and you now expect a country
to jump at it when you did not send
special invoice when you did not
maintain the highest kind of
relationship that is clear that you are
holding this other countries in high
esteem and regards. For example, you
know it and it was in public domain that
South Africa and Nigeria had a brick
bath over payment of utility bills. It
means that we really have a lot of
rejiggling of the foreign affairs
ministry and the presidency, the state
chief of protocols, the director of
protocols who are supposed to be
diplomats in their own right or to awake
and arise to be doing their normal de.
>> All right. So this is where we find
ourselves. This is the situation we find
ourselves as a nation. Now, however, you
would agree that we still need to
maintain diplomatic relationships and uh
at at critical points like this, we're
looking at key countries like the United
States of America, we're looking at the
United Kingdom, we're looking at uh the
United Nations. What can we do in the
interim or how can we continue to um
pursue uh cordial cordiality between
these nations, ourselves and these
nations whilst pursu sorting out these
ambassadors um you know designate postings.
The right way to go is for the incumbent
president, commanderin-chief
uh to appoint special envoys who are
very familiar with each of those
jurisdictions like you have now they
cluster them in terms of regions. North
America there must be one or two experts
that are already familiar and these are
the people that will broker all this.
The number two is for us to understand
that it needs a shared vision with the
political elite of the Nigerian state
because no country of the world wants to
operate with uncertainty. It means that
what some of us have always said before
now that the incumbent president needs
to reach out to the opposition political
parties and build consensus on this
matter going forward. There is going to
be a need for the president to convene a
meeting of interparty and major
political stakeholders to understand
that on this subject matter of foreign
relationships, management, diplomatic
practice, we will need to maintain this
and then they will now agree that we are
going to convince the international
community that each of these ambassadors
designate that do succeed in getting
agree more will serve a minimum of 24 to
30 months. If that is coming as a
positive signal from the Nigerian
political elite that are likely to
succeed should he not win uh the 2027
election so that they will know that
they have a continuity. They're going to
have a stability. They don't want a
situation where somebody will come in.
For example, let us assume without
conceding that they agree more for any
of the three uh ambassadors designates
that are available is issued and they
were able to report at their duty post
by March one. It does not translate to
the presentation of their letters of
credence to the sovereign of those
countries immediately. And if you are
talking of March 2026
to May 2027 and another president comes
in and he summarily uh uh recalls them
back home. But if the political class in
the Nigerian state have agreed that okay
whichever case may be we are going to
retain this set of ambassadors and that
means that there is going to be a
rethinking on those who have been
designated as ambassador designates. The
only ones that will find it a lot easier
are the career diplomats. And this is
where I was hoping that Mr. President,
commanderin-chief and the entire cabinet
would have been mindful of the fact that
those of us who speak as public
intellectuals and do contribute. We do
not hate them. We are just being
patriots. We are just excited about
bringing solutions that they are not
thinking about. If they've done all this
and they can do some of these things,
get special envoys per region for
Europe, a special envoy that will break
all these things and then convene the
meeting of the political elite elite
political elite consensus that the
ambassadors that are going to go on duty
post this time around will serve for a
definitive period. So that even if the
incumbent president is not coming back,
they are sure that they would have this
opportunity of serving for this x number
of time because there's a shared vision.
The question I would like to ask is
didn't the government know that there
was going to be a case of agree more
agree more when they decided to name
these ambassadors at this point in time.
I mean is it that we don't have people
that think amongst you know them that
much you know or does that scenario plan
because all of this is another level of
Rafi my brother you are a very good
brother and you're always helping me out
to think openly
painfully we have a system populated by
actors who had no business coming to
government. And if they must come into
government, they need to understand that
they are dealing with state craft. State
craft is completely different from any
form of grandstanding. I've just told
you the language used by a number of
them in communicating lacks the decency
and the panach of somebody who is nuance
in state craft.
Two, you have a situation where you have
people that are struggling
to validate the incumbent at all costs
and as such are not ready to read. And
if they do read, what are they reading?
I just told you about the Vienna
Convention which is 1961. But there are
many instruments and protocols
thereafter that already tells you that
you cannot have an embassy in any
country and you do not have an
ambassador for more than 90 days. These
are things that if they had the correct
set of people around them and if they do
not have and they do consult the correct
nuanced and enlightened people around
them, they will not be having these
issues. You cannot have removed and
recalled ambassadors September 2023 and
you've done nothing. And you expect
those host countries to be clapping for
you and to be doing makosa dance. No,
they will react. And that is what is
happening now. And mind you, when some
of those names were mentioned, the
Nigerian populace citizens complained
about some of them. And unfortunately,
the Apabio rubber stamp senate allowed
some of those names to go through. They
are watching and they are going to react
at this level and that is what they are doing.
doing.
>> Okay. Doctor, now Dr. of fab I mean you
are so optimistic that we can achieve
the objective of an elite political
consensus I don't think such a thing
exists because the list that you've been
referring to most of those people they
are just persons who have been rewarded
for you know electoral activities for
helping the party in power uh to come to
power. So if another government comes
in, he will have his own different plans
and another set of uh you know looking
for patronage and then of course people
who are career diplomats some of them
may have even entered into retirement
phase and you know they will no longer
be in service. However, what will be
your advice uh to the persons on the
list at the moment? Uh some of them have
had Thanksgiving parties. Uh should they
should they just go home and and and not
be too optimistic or will you if the
Tobu government comes back say well the
same list should be sent uh out again
for confirmation or maybe another list
should be uh provided
and early enough you know to address the
issue of ambassador so that for them
Already they already the ambassadors
designate that one cannot be taken away
from them. But they are not going to be
able to serve until an agree more is
presented and consumated and then even
when they get the agree and they leave
the shores of the Nigerian state, they
will have to wait until they present
their letters of credence. meaning that
even when they in that country they
cannot function until their letters of
credences are presented. They can only
do administrative
issues within the embassy but not
interfacing and constructively engaging
their host countries. So that is why I
said we will need this elite consensus.
The ambassadors designate particularly
the non-career political actor
ambassador designates must become aware
of the fact that becoming an ambassador
is based on national interest.
To go serve your fatherland as an
ambassador, you no longer have personal
interest. It must be the national
interest. You must be well attuned to
the fact that national interest is not
even the interest of the incumbent
president commanderin-chief. And if it
is clear to you and they arrive at an
elite consensus that the international
community is aware of because you I can
bet you already it is clear that these
are the individuals that are not likely
to scale through. If these ones are
going to scale through and the ones that
won't have too much problem are going to
be the ambassador designates that are
career and those ones too like you've
rightly pointed out some of them are
going to be due for retirement uh very
soon. So a number of these issues but
the first thing the first thing that he
needs to do as president is to appoint
special envoys to accelerate our
interface and constructive engagement
with Europe with North America with Asia
and things like that and those ones are
usually are very interesting to do. I
want to thank you.
>> Thank you so much Dr. Pagi appoint
special envoys um as you've uh
recommended this morning to the president.
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