Retired career diplomat, Ambassador Mohammed Ibrahim, has said President 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 in an interview with ARISE News on Tuesday, 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 sidelines 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.”
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.
Comparing that standard to today’s list, he added: “Use this as a criteria for the kind of persons that we have on the list.”
The retired envoy warned against appointing individuals whose reputations may already raise flags internationally.
“When you start bringing in people who have absolutely no public service experience, and I’m sorry to use these words—people whose even credibility has some question mark—then we’re running into trouble,”he said.
He revealed that foreign missions in Nigeria have been scrutinising the list intensely.
“In the last one week, there’s hardly any diplomatic mission in Nigeria that was not having 24 hours busy time going through all these writings. Most of the writings are negative,”he said.
He added that countries may reject some nominees outright:“I would not be surprised if some countries refuse to accept some of the nominees.”
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.
He argued that certain public offices should be terminal.
“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 Senate don’t even know where these people are going to. You can imagine sending someone who doesn’t speak a word of French to France,”he said.
“These are the kind of things I expect the Senators to insist on — otherwise it becomes a joke.”
In a startling revelation, Ibrahim said nearly 20 ambassadors from other countries have been stranded in Abuja for months because they have not been able to present their letters of credence to President Tinubu.
“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 called the situation embarrassing and dangerous for Nigeria’s reputation.
“For goodness sake, we need to be more serious. There’s no country that does that,”he added.
Ibrahim criticised the current induction process, saying it is no longer proper training.
“It’s not even called training; it’s an induction course for a week. You can imagine someone who two weeks ago didn’t have the faintest idea he would become an ambassador,” he said.
The retired diplomat urged government to restore the professional foundations of Nigeria’s foreign service, warning that the current direction threatens the country’s credibility.
Boluwatife Enome
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