Nigeria’s minister of state-designate for foreign affairs decries deplorable conditions of country’s missions

"Indeed, the missions are in a very deplorable state, most of them arising from paucity of funds. A proposal was made a couple of years ago to develop the BPP arrangement that will enable the government to better run these missions and generate some funds to run them more efficiently."

Nigeria’s Minister of State-designate for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, has said recent findings show that most of the country’s missions abroad are in a deplorable state due to inadequate funding.

Mr Enikanolaiye noted that the missions have deteriorated since the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, despite a proposal submitted at the time to upgrade the facilities, a move he said could have generated revenue for the country.

He made these remarks on Wednesday while responding to questions from senators during his screening at the upper chamber.

The minister-designate, who previously served as Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Foreign Affairs and International Relations, said a committee he was part of identified about 500 Nigerian government properties across the world.

“Indeed, the missions are in a very deplorable state, most of them arising from paucity of funds. A proposal was made a couple of years ago to develop the BPP arrangement that will enable the government to better run these missions and generate some funds to run them more efficiently.

“I was a member of the ministerial committee that worked on this and we collated data of about 500 government properties all over the world and it was recommended that you can’t maintain these properties based on regular budgeting by the BPP arrangement. That was under President Jonathan but it did not see the light of the day,” he said.

Mr Enikanolaiye therefore urged the Tinubu administration to revisit and implement the recommendations of the committee.

“We tried to bring this forward to the attention of Mr President. My recommendation will be for that report to be approved. I’m aware that the minister of foreign affairs is already working on this. We need to fast-track the implementation of the report which has just been approved by FEC. So, we have the legal framework for this to happen. This is one sure way of ensuring a sustainable mechanism for our mission,” he stated.

Nigeria maintains one of the largest diplomatic footprints in Africa, with over 100 embassies, high commissions, and consulates across the world. In addition to these official missions, the country owns hundreds of landed properties in prime locations globally, many of which were acquired decades ago.

However, funding for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions has remained consistently low relative to operational needs. Over the years, diplomats have repeatedly complained about poor working conditions, irregular salary payments, and the inability to maintain official residences and office infrastructure.

The issue generated controversy recently after Mr Tinubu approved and posted ambassadors to represent Nigeria in different countries. At the time, there were speculations that some missions in the past struggled to meet basic obligations, including payment of local staff, utilities, and school fees for diplomats’ children. In some cases, missions have reportedly accumulated debts or faced reputational embarrassment due to underfunding.

Akpabio’s experience

Corroborating the minister-designate’s submission, Senate President Godswill Akpabio shared his experience during a recent trip to Vatican City, where he led a Nigerian delegation to attend the burial of Pope Francis.

Mr Akpabio said Nigerian officials in the Vatican had to rent vehicles for the delegation due to the absence of official cars.

“Nigerian travel, even though government officials, they rent vehicles for them. I recalled when I went to Vatican, they rented a vehicle for me, they said they didn’t have vehicles for senior government missions,” he said.

The senate president also lamented that some Nigerian ambassadors are owed salaries, a situation he said is affecting their families, particularly their children’s education.

“Our children are being sent out of schools, children of diplomats working in embassies are no longer going to school because monies are not being released to them. Their mothers and fathers are not getting the monthly remittances from Nigeria.

“And the story is that even when money is released to foreign affairs, they don’t release the money on time. Sometimes they owe up to five to six months, so these children are sent out of schools. If we have an opportunity to have a man who is going to be a minister of affairs before us, we should ask these questions. These are issues,” Mr Akpabio said.

Confirmation

After the nominee responded to questions from lawmakers, the senate president put his confirmation to a vote, and the majority of senators supported it by voice vote.

He was subsequently confirmed.

Mr Enikanolaiye is expected to be sworn into office in the next few days by President Tinubu.