Retired career diplomat, Ambassador Mohammed Ibrahim, has said Bola Tinubu’s ambassadorial nominations reflect a ‘greater, deeper malaise’ in Nigeria’s diplomatic system, warning that many of the nominees lack the training, experience and credibility required to represent the country abroad.
Speaking on ARISE TV, Ibrahim said: “It came with some elements of shock. To me it is a symptom of greater, deeper malaise in the Nigerian diplomatic service.”
He noted that since Nigeria began posting ambassadors in 1957/58, “we’ve never had this kind of reaction, contentious receptions, media writings, social media like this.”
Ibrahim lamented that the list sidelined seasoned career diplomats in favour of individuals who have neither the grounding nor the public service pedigree required for the role.
“It’s a professional thing. It’s a career. When we joined the foreign service as younger officers, we made all our blunders on the learning curve. After about 40 years you have become a seasoned diplomat. If you are appointing people now straight, they have not gone through the learning curve,”he said.
He warned that sending untrained nominees abroad means “the kind of errors we made in our early 20s are the errors they will make.”
“Some of them have spent three months… I understand five months… and they haven’t been able to present their letters of credence. They can’t function. They can’t fly the flag,”he said.
He recalled the standards set during the Tafawa Balewa era, describing it as “the golden era” when diplomats were selected based on education, character and loyalty.
“Tafawa Balewa emphasised that to be a diplomat you need to be well-educated intellectually and professionally. You need to have good moral character and loyalty to the country,”he said.
Asked about nominees like former INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, Reno Omokri and Femi Fani-Kayode, Ibrahim said their re-emergence raises serious issues of propriety.
“Nigeria is a very strange country. If I were president, and somebody who has written derogatory things about me, and then I appoint him an ambassador… I will really have to think twice,” he said.
“If you are made Chairman of INEC, which talks about independence, neutrality, you don’t come back again. So soon, it will be strange. But as I said, anything goes in this country.”
Ibrahim urged the Senate to take vetting seriously, noting that in proper diplomatic systems, nominees are assessed based on where they will be posted.
The retired diplomat urged the government to restore the professional foundations of Nigeria’s foreign service, warning that the current direction threatens the country’s credibility.
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