SGF inaugurates c’ttee to review Nigeria’s diplomatic missions

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, has inaugurated the presidential committee on the review of number and strategy for resourcing Nigeria’s diplomatic missions.

Mustapha inaugurated the committee in Abuja on Tuesday.

Speaking at the event, the SGF said the establishment and deliberate composition of the committee will enable President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle the root cause of the critical state of affairs of the country’s diplomatic missions and its impact on the image of Nigeria across the world, adding that the timeline for the activities of the committee was three months.

He further listed the committee’s duties to include “determine the current number, categories of Nigeria’s diplomatic missions; subject matter desks worldwide and categorise their strategic importance and impact worldwide and make appropriate recommendations;

“Identify and categorise the revenue generation capacity of missions, performance in this regard, causes and level of indebtedness;

“Review the understanding and application of critical extant policies, guidelines, circulars, codes, regulations, financial management systems, statutes, etc across Nigeria’s missions with a view to minimising bottlenecks, misapplication and curbing infractions;

“Review all previous reports on establishment of Missions and measures taken to effectively and economically manage Nigeria’s mission, identify challenges and make appropriate recommendations on sustainable steps to be taken as well as identifying reasons why the measures were not effective;

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“Review factors promoting or hindering inter-agency collaboration, cohesion and effective service delivery at Nigeria’s mission and desks and make appropriate recommendation;

“Review Human Resources Management Systems and practices in Nigeria’s Foreign Service and make appropriate recommendations on how to improve it in a sustainable manner;

“Identify cost cutting measures and all other steps that need to be taken to drastically reduce cost of running Nigeria’s foreign missions;

“Review all assets of Nigeria’s foreign missions with a view to document and assess their viability as well as give recommendations for sustainability;

“Review any other matter and make any other recommendation(s) that would be beneficial to foreign service of Nigeria in a sustainable manner.”

Mustapha, who said the committee would report on regular basis to his office for onward transmission to Buhari, thanked the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of State for their efforts in trying to manage the situation over the years.

“This is a serious task that calls for diligence, expertise, collaboration and critical reasoning.  We should therefore strive to proffer sustainable solutions to the challenges faced by our missions,” he added.

The SGF, however, reiterated Buhari’s commitment to supporting the committee as “one of the strategies to positively rebrand the image of Nigeria on the international arena.”

The committee has Amb. Martin Uhomoibi as chairman, Sabiu Zakari as vice-chairman.

Other members of the committee include Shehu Ibrahim, Beatrice Edodamen Jedy-Agba, Amb. Bulus Lolo, Saheed K. Y. Adelakun, and Amb. Janet Olisa.

The Star