Some countries including India, have rejected some of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recently posted ambassadors-designate.
The countries it was gathered predicated their refusal on the political calendar in Nigeria, taking into cognisance that the next round of general elections is less than a year from now.
India in particular declined to accept the posting of the Nigerian Ambassador designate, Muhammad Dahiru, a career diplomat, owing to its diplomatic policies that do not encourage receiving envoys from administrations with less than two years remaining in office.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled the next presidential election for January 16, 2027, after which the first tenure of President Tinubu is expected to come to an end by May 29, 2027.
Further checks indicated that other countries gave similar reasons for their rejection of the Nigerian Ambassadors in line with their standing policy against accepting ambassadors from governments with tenures of less than two years remaining.
The development had attracted the comments of some analysts who noted that its was fatal error of judgement on the part of Tinubu’s administration to have waited for three years into his government before approving the list of ambassadorial nominees.
Most of the countries are already perceiving the Tinubu government as an outgoing government, thus concerned since he has just about one year left, it does not augur well to accept such postings in view of the dicey nature of elections which could produce a new government.
However, it was also gathered that the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already secured funding for the mandatory induction course for the ambassadors-designate, even with the uncertainty surrounding the timeline and acceptance of the ambassadors-designate by the various countries.
President Tinubu on Friday, March 6, approved the postings of 65 Ambassadors-designate and High Commissioners to various countries and the United Nations.
Some of the 65 ambassadors-designate included former presidential aide Reno Omokri (Mexico), former Minister of Interior- Lt Gen Abdulrahman Dambazzau (China), former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode (Germany), and Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, who was posted to the United Nations as a Permanent Representative.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has so far only received agrément from the United Kingdom for High Commissioner-designate Aminu Dalhatu as well as France for Ambassador Ayodele Oke, thus leaving the fate of the remaining 63 envoys in the limbo.
Under Article 4 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, receiving states must grant consent before any ambassador can be accredited.
