President Bola Tinubu has shown his intention to play a big role on the foreign affairs front. One of his earliest acts was accepting to chair the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Authority of Heads of State and Government on July 9, 2023.
He fronted its ill-advised move to force the Niger Republic junta to restore power to an unpopular ousted president, Mohammed Bazoum, but has since settled down to put dialogue on the front burner. Tinubu is also attending the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, in New York with a large delegation focused on economic diplomacy and a huge drive for investors.
Another telling step he has taken is the recall of all High Commissioners and Ambassadors with a view to retooling our foreign service which fell into utter disrepair under Muhammadu Buhari. The former president failed to recognise the new status of the Nigerian Diaspora in the affairs of the nation at this stage of our development.
Nigeria stands tall in the international community for the good, the bad and ugly reasons. For instance, the estimated population of Nigerians who live permanently abroad stands at about 15 million. The great majority of them are well-educated people and specialists in many prestigious areas, especially medicine, technology and science. Nigerians are occupying top political positions in the UK, USA and Canada.
Nigerian musicians, comedians, movies and cuisine are enjoying universal acclaim. Also, the diaspora remittances which was $20.1b in 2012, is estimated to hit $26b in 2025. These are our treasure troves which no leader worth his name will ignore.
Also, Nigeria faces the challenges of mass emigrations (the japa syndrome) which threaten to undermine our human resources base. Many Nigerians are facing hard times in their host countries due to frauds, drug trade, robberies and other heinous crimes perpetrated by our nationals.
For this and other reasons, Nigeria has a terrible image internationally. Our green passport enjoys little prestige or value. Nigerians are regularly targeted for xenophobic attacks, especially right here on the continent of Africa. Unfortunately, our foreign missions have proved incapable of responding to the needs of the Nigerian diaspora due to poor funding and governance of our diplomatic sector.
We hope that this recall of ambassadors will not just be another knee-jerk measure by a new government. Tinubu’s government should strive to reposition our foreign missions to respond to the needs of our diaspora population. It should exploit the opportunities being opened up by our entertainers and deploy diaspora remittances to benefit the economy.
Our missions should be audited and relaunched for serious business. They should not be dumping grounds for political jobbers. Tinubu must restore the pride of our passport and make Nigeria a safe and prosperous home for our diaspora elements to return to.
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