Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his administration will
undertake a review of Nigerian foreign missions to determine those that
are really essential.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said Buhari would soon set up a presidential committee to carry out the review.
The president spoke after he was briefed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bulus Lolo.
The president said that the review would determine the number of essential missions Nigeria needed to maintain abroad so that appropriate standards and quality could be maintained.
The president said that there was no point in Nigeria operating missions all over the world "with dilapidated facilities and demoralized staff" when the need for some of the missions was questionable.
"Let's keep only what we can manage. We can't afford much for now. There's no point in pretending," Buhari told Lolo and other officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He also called for the record of former government officials and other persons still using diplomatic and official passports illegally, saying that his administration would take necessary action against them.
"Something has to be done so that we can get back our respectability as a country. Some people carry official passports and get involved in all sorts of negative acts. We need to do something about it," the president said.
Lolo told Buhari that the challenges facing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs included the absence of a Foreign Service Commission, poor funding of foreign missions, policy inconsistencies and training deficiencies, among others.
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