Maduekwe bars ambassadors from partisan politics

Wednesday, 22 April 2009 17:51

Written by Oluwole Josiah

Maduekwe bars ambassadors from partisan politics
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, has said ambassadors who are political appointees should refrain from abandoning their diplomatic assignments abroad for political activities at home.

He said although they were politicians who were appointed ambassadors, their diplomatic assignments superseded their party affiliations and activities.

Maduekwe was speaking at an induction for 11 newly appointed ambassadors-designate and their spouses in Abuja on Monday.

He said, ”Party will now be secondary in the running of the affairs of the mission. We wouldn‘t like a situation where you leave your mission and you are coming to Nigeria to organise ward meetings or attend local government meetings.”

The minister noted that as politicians, it was likely that party affairs would run into conflict with diplomatic assignments and admonished them to insist on the national priority of always voting for the diplomatic functions.

According to him, if there is any conflict between the conduct of foreign affairs of Nigeria and party assignments or matters, the former will take precedence over the party.

”Because you are an ambassador representing not just those Nigerians who are PDP members, you are an ambassador representing all those who belong to other political parties and the vast majority who don‘t belong to any party at all. Your number one party now is the party called Nigeria,” he said.

Maduekwe said that there was no difference between political appointees and career diplomats, given that all were coming into the job with relevant experiences.

He restated the imperative of submitting regular reports and dispatches to the ministry‘s headquarters by the ambassadors as against the practice of writing directly to the President.

He said such a practice would help the ministry get to know what was happening at the embassies across the world.

”I don‘t have any territorial instinct. In treating ambassadors, I don‘t consider them anything less than colleagues. As long as I remain foreign minister, I insist that headquarters must know what is happening in the embassies, because ultimately I am accountable to Mr. President.

”So we expect you to write your dispatches regularly. And if you write anything and you want it to get my attention, I don‘t know of anything that shouldn‘t get my attention any way, you have to put my name on it, so there is no excuse that you sent your dispatch and the minister did not receive it. The minister is just a phone call away from wherever you are,” he said.

The new ambassadors are Mr. Aminu Wali, Mr. Adamu Daura, Mr. Isaac Onuh, Chief Lawrence Nwuruku, Mrs. Nkoyo Toyo, Mr. Hussein Abdullahi, Mr. Bature Lawal, Mr. Lawrence Akindele, Mr. Samuel Aiyedona, Mr. Rax Eze and Mr. Ghali Umar.

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Author of this article: Oluwole Josiah

Comments

0 # bobby From Vienna Au 2009-04-22 10:58 First I have to say thanks to maduekwe, but I but you this will not work as so many of them are more interested in the politics than representing nigeria, eg, the ambassador to austria,is warming up to contest as the governor of his state. maduekwe is aware of this. how can this be checked? this is why I love whites so much, if there is any one of them that want to participate fully in politics, first they will resigned in other to face their political goal, [censored] all the ambassadors Reply | Reply with quote | Quote

0 # kingsley 2009-04-22 10:58 i will also be happy, as a nigeria citizen. if our so call Ambassadors can be check regularly cos many of them believe is there father tittle to be there…example are nigeria ambassadors in dublin ireland, saying such of dirty interview on national tv ireland.she must be call to order Reply | Reply with quote | Quote

0 # lawrence 2009-04-22 11:00 I wouldn't expect this directive to be given to the Ambassadors in the first place,because they ought to have known that being called to represent your country in a foreign land automatically nullifies every political affiliation. Outside Nigeria there is nothing like PDP,AC,ANPP or what have you. If these Ambassadors didn't know this before,the minister of foreign affaires should have them resign from their various political parties before being posted,this is to avoid conflict of interest. Reply | Reply with quote | Quote

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