President
Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a review of Nigeria’s foreign missions with an aim
of pruning down the number and improving the quality of services rendered.
To this end,
a presidential Committee would soon be formed do carry out a holistic exercise
on the foreign missions.
At the
moment, the country has a total 119 foreign missions which president Buhari
said would be too expensive to maintain due to the economic downturn.
The
president who gave the charge after he was briefed on the activities of
Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Bulus Lolo
and other officials of the Ministry, President Buhari said that it would be
counter-productive 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
pretending,” he said.
The
President also called for the record of former government officials and other
persons who were still in possession of diplomatic and official passports after
leaving office, saying that his administration will 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,” President Buhari said.
Earlier,
Ambassador Lolo told President Buhari that the challenges facing the Ministry
included the absence of a Foreign Service Commission, poor funding of foreign
missions, policy inconsistencies and training deficiencies, among others. (VANGUARD)
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