Foreign Affairs Ministry Justifies Delay in Appointing Ambassadors, Warns Against Politicising Diplomacy
The federal government has defended the prolonged delay in appointing ambassadors to Nigerian missions abroad, saying the process is tied to an ongoing reform of the nation’s foreign service architecture.
This comes in response to criticism from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which accused President Bola Tinubu of stalling diplomatic relations by failing to name ambassadors nearly two years into his administration.
Bolaji Abdullahi, interim national publicity secretary of the ADC, said Tinubu’s refusal to appoint ambassadors has “affected the quality of engagement and relationships with the host countries of Nigerian missions,” citing recent visa policy updates from the United States and United Arab Emirates as evidence.
But in a counter-statement on Tuesday, Alkasim Abdulkadir, special assistant on media and communications strategy to Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar, dismissed the ADC’s criticism as “baseless” and “politicised”.
“The appointment of ambassadors is not a haphazard exercise to satisfy political impatience or party quotas,” Abdulkadir said. “It is a sovereign function, guided by rigorous considerations, national security priorities, and the strategic interests of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He said President Tinubu is committed to “comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s foreign service architecture to ensure that future ambassadorial appointments reflect not only political balance but also merit, competence, and integrity.”
Responding to the ADC’s disapproval of Tuggar’s public stance on the deportation of Venezuelans, Abdulkadir said: “There was no diplomatic faux pas in the public articulation of Nigeria’s stance. In the age of open diplomacy and global media, communicating Nigeria’s sovereign position is not ‘recklessness’; it is accountability to the Nigerian people.”
