The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ambassadors

  • AU ambassadors demand apology from Trump over ‘racist remarks’

    AU ambassadors demand apology from Trump over ‘racist remarks’

    African Union ambassadors to the UN demanded an apology from U.S. President Donald Trump for his racist remark on the people of Africa.

    The group of over 50 nations in a statement said: “the AU expressed its disappointment and outrage over the unfortunate comment made by Mr Donald Trump, President of the United States of America.

    “The remarks dishonour the celebrated American creed and respect for diversity and human dignity.

    “While expressing our shock, dismay and outrage, the African Union truly believes that there is a huge misunderstanding of the African continent and its people by the current administration.

    “There is a serious need for dialogue between the U.S. administration and the African countries. The African Union, through its member States, values the strategic partnership with the U.S.

    “This relationship should be from the point of equality and mutual respect based on accepted international principles of respect for basic human dignity of all,” the mission said.

    The Mission demanded a retraction of the statement and an apology from the U.S. leader.

    “The AU mission condemns the statement in the strongest terms and demands a retraction of the comment as well as an apology to not only the Africans but to all people of African descent across the globe.”

    The U.S. president reportedly made the comment during a meeting with congressional leaders in the Oval Office on Thursday.

    “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump allegedly said after being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from the countries in question.

    The UN has also branded as racist, the reported remark branding Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations as “shithole countries”.

    “If confirmed these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word you can use but ‘racist’.

    “You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’, whose entire populations who are not white, are therefore not welcome,” said Rupert Coleville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. (NAN)

  • Lagos to pilgrims: be good ambassadors

    The Lagos State government has advised Christians embarking on holy pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Rome to shun vices and be good ambassadors of the state and the country.

    Its Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board urged the pilgrims to desist from acts that are capable of tarnishing the image of the state as well as the country.

    Speaking during the 2017 Dedication Service for the intending pilgrims at the Chapel of Christ the Light, Alausa Ikeja, Lagos, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Home Affairs, Mrs Toyin Awoseyi Awoseyi urged the pilgrims to pray for peace and unity in the country.

    She prayed for the safe return of the intending pilgrims and advised them to embark on the journey with the intention to achieve a spiritual rebirth by focusing on the spiritual aspect of the  exercise.

    The Permanent Secretary added that the only way the intending pilgrims could have powerful and life changing testimonies after the pilgrimage is by making adequate preparations before embarking on the journey, stressing that holy pilgrimage started from the day the decision to embark on the journey was conceived.

    The Acting Presiding Chaplain of the Chapel, Very Reverend Ayo Olu Oyadotun in his sermon urged the intending pilgrims to be sincere as they embark on the journey so that they could have genuine encounter with God.

  • The Ambassadors

    The Ambassadors

    A few months ago, some denizens of the Rivers State government characterised NIMASA boss, Dakuku Peterside, as a failure. They did not know what was coming. He proved them wrong without a word. He slammed them with his success story. As the finance minister announced, NIMASA turned billions of naira to the Federation Account, topping in multiple percentage what his predecessors did.

    In millions of dollars, he replied Governor Wike and his men. This doing is also evident in the work of Professor Ishaq Oloyede of JAMB, who turned out a profit of eight billion Naira when his predecessor trickled with three million Naira.

    This is kudos to the two men, but also to President Buhari’s ability to ensure that he ran a country shorn of corruption. The NCC also unveiled a huge sum. We cannot however shout hurrah until we see the full story. For instance, what is NECO’s record?

    The Dakuku and Oloyede deserve the plaudits as ambassadors of accountability.

  • Be good ambassadors, public servants told

    The Acting Director-General, Public Service Staff Development Centre, Lagos,  Mr. Olufunmi Ajose-Harrison has urged participants at its training programmes to be with greater commitment.

    He gave the charge at the closing ceremony for participants of the three months specialised Information Communications Technology (ICT) training for Secretarial Assistants in the Public Service.

    The course which the Centre started in 2009 is being run in collaboration with Yaba College of Technology as moderator. The school also issue certificates to successful participants.

    Ajose-Harrison said the participants should consider themselves lucky to undergo the training as they would gain tremendously both officially and privately.

    He said the Centre would conduct an impact assessment on all participants in their various offices, six months after the course, to monitor and evaluate their performances regarding the impacted knowledge.

    He pledged that requests contained in their communique would be forwarded to the appropriate authority for consideration.

    The course which had participants drawn from different Ministries, Departments and Agencies had stagnated Assistant Secretarial officers on grade level 9, who would move a grade higher at the completion of the course.

    In their communiqué, the participants said the course has updated their knowledge on information technology and improved their skills in the area of office management and administration.

    The participants also acknowledged the contributions of the coordinators and facilitators while describing the sessions as lively and interactive. “The facilitators ensured full participation of all participants by engaging them in class discussions, interactive group work, tutorial and continuous assessment.” they said.

    It had 18 participants drawn from various Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who went through courses ranging from Computer Fundamentals, Desktop Publishing, Web Technology, Management Information, Use of English, Secretarial and Office Management, Business Mathematics, Business Communication and Microsoft Word.

  • Why ambassadors are yet to be deployed, by perm sec

    THE forty-four career ambassadors-designate approved by the Senate are yet to resume at their respective countries of accreditation, it was learnt yesterday.

    The ambassadors have since been deployed, but could not report at their stations as a result of the non-arrival of the consent documents (agreement/agreemo) from their host countries.

    The agreement or agreemo is consent to the proposed ambassador deployed to a particular country, or consent from one nation to another agreeing to the appointment of an ambassador or envoy.

    Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olusola Enikanolaye, who confirmed the development, assured that the ambassadors would resume when agreements (consent) have been obtained from prospective countries.

    He said: “However, they cannot proceed until we received agreement for all of them – they are about 44 in this category.

    “Agreement have started coming; the agreement are coming in bit by bit. They do not come at the same time.

    “And, once agreement is received for each of them, we will make announcement but we will not make announcement until the countries have given consent, which is agreement.

    “This is where we are. We expected that all of these should be completed in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

    In the case of the non-career ambassadors, the permanent secretary said they were yet to be assigned.

    “That work is in progress. It is almost completed as soon as that is completed the countries to which they have been deployed will be the first to know.

    He said that they would be assigned before the next stage of asking for agreement.

    “Of the three categories of ambassadors that President Muhammadu Buhari approved, it’s only the ones assigned to international organisations like I said New York, Geneva and the AU in Addis Ababa that have been deployed.

    “Prof. Mohammed Tijani, the New Permanent representative in New York has already assumed duty, Ambassador A.A Kadir an ambassador and Permanent Representative in Geneva had submitted his letter of credence and assumed duty.

    “The third one is Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, Permanent Representative to the AU at Addis Ababa is waiting for his agreement to proceed to Addis Ababa,” he said.

     

  • Govt to complete posting of ambassadors in July

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has explained that most Nigerian ambassador-designates will be posted to the country’s various missions abroad by July.
    Its Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in New York that the ministry had started receiving “agreemo” from governments of the countries they would be posted to.
    ‘Agreemo’ is a memorandum from one country to another agreeing to the appointment of an ambassador or envoy.
    ”There are three groups of ambassadors. The first group, to which Prof (Tijjani) Bande belongs, has been announced and Prof. Bande has resumed here in New York.
    “Ambassador Audu Kadiri in Geneva has also assumed. We expect that Ambassador Bankole Adeoye going to Addis Ababa should assume in the next couple of days. That’s the very first group.
    “The second group of ambassadors, which was drawn largely from the career category, has also been deployed.
    “We’ve started to receive ‘agreemo’, which is a consent of the receiving states. And we expect that in the next couple of weeks, they should also assume duties.
    “What we’re waiting for is the deployment of the non-career.  That has not been concluded; it’s ongoing. We expect that should be completed also in the next couple of weeks.
    “So that, minus or plus, in the next two months, most of our ambassadors should have assumed duty in their various posts abroad.”
    The permanent secretary said the financial situation of the missions had been resolved, adding that more fund was being disbursed.
    ”The state of the Nigerian missions abroad has been a major concern to government, particularly in the area of funding.”

    “But I can announce that the situation is poised to improve because additional funding has been provided by government and is currently being disbursed.
    “We believe that upon receipt of those funds, they would be able to, at least, come out of the woods.
    “But we need to look into a more sustainable manner of funding Nigerian missions so that they would not go back into the era of huge indebtedness from which they are now trying to come out at this time.”
    The Federal Government recalled the ambassadors appointed by the previous administration in 2015 and now the country’s foreign missions are run by Chargé d’Affaires or counsel-generals.

  • Minister urges ambassadors to explore FDI for FCT

    Minister urges ambassadors to explore FDI for FCT

    The 47 newly appointed career Ambassadors have been urged to explore possibilities of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

    FCT Minister Malam Muhammad Bello gave this charge on when the ambassadors paid him a working visit.

    Bello emphasized that with Foreign Direct Investment, the economic challenge the nation is facing today would become a thing of the past as that would drastically reduce dependence on imported goods and services.

    The minister reiterated that there are lots of investment opportunities in the Federal Capital Territory that could be marketed by the new Ambassadors to their host countries and that the FCTA would leverage on their expertise to sell Abuja to the world.

    Bello remarked that there exist opportunities for light industries in the Federal Capital Territory; saying that the Idu Industrial Layout has been provided with adequate infrastructure for such purpose.

    According to him, the FCT Administration has also provided an enabling environment for would-be genuine investors to strive and further urged the new envoys to take advantage of such liberalisation.

    He reminded them that Abuja is the only city that is a creation of law in Nigeria, the home to all Nigerians, including the ambassadors, and the window through which the world sees the country.

    The minister assured that the FCT Administration would continue to jealously guard the Abuja Master Plan and all the diplomatic plots meant for embassies and High Commissions in the city.

    He prayed that all of the ambassadors would make the nation proud as well as the Federal Capital Territory; stressing, “all of you have Abuja as either first or second home”.

    His words: “You know all the challenges of the Federal Capital Territory because all of you live here and therefore you can best market the city by bringing Foreign Direct Investment to tackle all those challenges.”

    The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, who led the group, appreciated the warm reception accorded the team.

    Enikanolaiye said the visit is part of the induction programme organised for the ambassadors to acquaint them of the ingredients of the government policies in terms of protocol and its priority in terms of domestic agenda which is built on change, good governance, economic, security and anti-corruption.

  • Writers to corporate brands: Make us your ambassadors

    Writers to corporate brands: Make us your ambassadors

    •NLNG, CORA host 2016 Literature Prize first-11 authors

    The literati, book lovers and enthusiasts thronged the Agip Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos, for the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited and the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA) book party. The cerebral feasting drew attention to ongoing conversations on the book industry’s challenges. EVELYN OSAGIE reports.

    Corporate brands have been urged to make writers their brand ambassadors. By so doing, they will be encouraging and promoting creative writing across the country, writers and critics said at a book party to celebrate the 11 shortlisted authors for this year’s NLNG-sponsored $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature.

    The call, the state of leadership in the book industry, reading culture, lack of infrastructure and high tariff on paper and other printing materials were the focus of conversations at the  party organised by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited and the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA).

    The feast, the seventh edition, was to honour writers, and celebrate Nigerian prose. It also featured readings, book discussions, conversations and performances.

    Eight of the writers, fondly called “the first-11 authors” at the event, participated in the feast. While three of them were present, five participated via Skype because they were abroad.

    Those present were Maryam Awaisu, author of Burning Bright); Ifeoluwa Adeniyi (On The Bank Of The River and Omowunmi Aramide Segun, daughter of a first generation writer, Mabel Segun. She wrote Eniitan.

    Those who participated via Skype were the author of Born On Tuesday, El-Nathan John; Ifeoma Okoye, who authored The Fourth World; Abubakar Adamu Ibrahim,  (Season Of Crimson Blossoms) Yejide Kilanko (Daughters Who Walk This Path)  and Mansim Chumah Okafor, (The Parable Of The Lost Shepherds). Chuka Unigwe, the 2012 winner of the Prize for Literature and the writer of Night Dancer was ready for the conversation via the Skype, but, technical hitches delayed her participation.

    Ogochukwu Promise (Sorrow’s Joy), and award-winning Sefi Atta, author of A Bit of Difference, did not participate.

    Interestingly, eight of the authors are women, cutting across three generations of post-independence Nigerian writing. This feat CORA Secretary General, Toyin Akinosho observed, makes this year’s edition “almost about The Female voice in Nigerian Literature”. And the women had their say as they voiced their misgivings about the challenges facing the book industry. The writers also decried the lack of electricity, poor distribution network, and absence of libraries and dependable bookshops. In fact, Dr Dami Ajayi, a poet who moderated the event, wondered how creative writers living in Nigeria were able to write and get their works published.

    “It is sad that from my mother Mabel Segun’s time and the time I first published my first book in 1991, the reading culture is still a debate. So many things militate against reading culture. For many people, survival comes first. Bookshops sell books but authors don’t get money back. No proper postal system compounds costs of distribution. Until we have intellectual leaders, reading would continue to take the back seat. If we don’t do something about the state of the country, 20 years from now, we would still be talking about the declining reading culture and lack of infrastructure in the book industry, bemoaned Segun.

    While decrying the lack of infrastructure, Adeniyi urged the government to look into the tariff on printing materials and books published abroad.

    According to her, Nigeria needs intellectual leaders to solve the problem of leadership in the country. She said: “There is no incentive for reading and writing in the country. Why can’t we have writers as brand ambassadors; who says they can’t be brand ambassadors? There are no paper mills in the country and the cost of paper is so high because of the high tariff on paper.”

    On the challenges she encountered before publishing her novel which she wrote at age 17, she said approached virtually all the publishers in Nigeria without any positive response. “They never reject you; they never accept you either. They don’t want to publisher somebody without a name. I became a Disk Jockey (DJ) and On-Air-Personality (OAP). I had to look for best editor and publisher. I’m glad I took a leap of faith and saved up to publish my book. I had a launch that looked like a wedding event.”

    With the many challenges facing writers, Awaisu advised them to look out for themselves by “using a book platform that has a global network and proper editing”.

    The prize, is in its 13th edition. The General Manager, External Relations at NLNG, Dr Kudo Eresia-Eke, noted that there is a huge rise in the quality of books in the country. He said: “The books on this shortlist depict that hard work and nothing short of the pursuit of excellence drove the writing of books. This makes the competition exciting and less predictable.

    One thing which will not change is our quest for excellence. I state it here without doubt, that NLNG remains committed to this principle.

    “At NLNG, excellence is one of our core values, together with teamwork, integrity and caring, which we owe our success to. We believe that we have a lot of potentials which make us world class and able to compete with the best around the world. That is what we intend to do with writers in Nigeria through The Nigeria Prize for Literature.”

    Akinosho called for the enabling environment where reading and community of book readership can thrive.  He said: “This party, which is one of the series of events in our calendar that preface our annual book and art festival,  is our little contribution to growing a community of book lovers was held for the first time seven years ago in 2009 for poetry. It was held at the seaside venue of the Goethe Institut. It is the second time they are focusing on Fiction: in Prose style. The Nigeria Prize itself is on its Fourth round of genres and is featuring Prose for the fourth time. The NLNG sponsored Nigeria Prize for Literature, picks one literary genre every four years. For us at CORA, this is part of a third cycle.

    “We at CORA have always felt that books that make it to this level in such a major award system as the Nigeria Prize for Literature ought to be known in every community in the country. Our ambition is to help that happen; to extend the star attraction of the award winner beyond the Gala Night of the award. “

    The award, he said, is an opportunity for a series of events to really make books look cool, adding that the promotion of books and reading culture should be beyond.

    “It is also is an opportunity for the promotion of series of book readings and discussions in as many crannies of the country as possible and on TV discussions and radio shows. We should develop a community of book readership enablers; organisations that exist just to spread the joy of reading.

    “Book readership promotion should go beyond big showpieces as Bring Back the Book campaigns or book festivals. It should be about how we as citizens engage the organs of book development in our communities,” he said.

  • Buhari has constitutional power to freely nominate ambassadors, says SGF

    Buhari has constitutional power to freely nominate ambassadors, says SGF

    The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal at the weekend said that President Muhammadu Buhari has the constitutional power to nominate ambassadors anyway he deems fit.

    The Senate had suspended the screening and confirmation of the 47 nominees by President Buhari noting that the list did not reflect the Federal Character principle.

    The Upper Chamber had rather summoned the SGF and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to throw light on the criteria used in the nomination of the 47 ambassadorial list that had no representation for four states including Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ondo and Plateau.

    Speaking with newsmen in Abuja, the SGF, who said that he was ready to appear before the Senate, noted that the President is not bound by any law to adopt any particular criteria while nominating ambassadors.

    While the constitution prescribed nomination of at least one Minister from each state, he said that the President has no such restriction in ambassadorial nominations.

    Rather than suspending deliberation on the list, he said that the matter would have been resolved with just a phone call.

    He said: “Certainly, we will appear, we are law abiding, we respect the National Assembly and we respect the laws of the land. One thing however is clear, the constitution makes it clear that it is the prerogative of the president to nominate Ambassadors and the criteria he will use to do so is also the constitutional right of the President. Whatever criteria he chooses to use is constitutional. We acknowledge also that it is also the prerogative of the Senate to approve or not to approve that nomination.

    “Be that as it may, I must say that we are disappointed that the National Assembly took the decision it did but again we believe that the Senate is made up of very responsible and patriotic Nigerians and the Senate is made up of great people including governors who have governed and known the constitution regarding separation of powers.

    “We believe that the Senate will not do anything that will bring the country to disrepute because right now Nigeria enjoys tremendous goodwill all over the globe. Countries now have high regard and respect for our president, our ministers and all other representatives of government are treated very well and with respect wherever they go. It is important to have ambassadors to sustain this goodwill,” he added.

    He also pointed out that having ambassadors in foreign countries have a long way to go in seeking foreign investment into the country.

    He said: “Again, a lot of the travels by the president and government representatives is to attract direct foreign investment into the country and ambassadors are key to sustaining this and ensuring that the goals for these trips are achieved.

    “A third reason why we think these ambassadors are key is because of the phenomenal of global terrorism; almost every country around the world is facing it and all nations of the world are now collaborating with each other to fight this international terrorism. It is important that Nigerians have representatives on the ground who will represent its interest and defend it.” He stated

    Delaying the screening of ambassadors even by one day, he said, is inimical to the country.

    He however said: “We believe that senators being patriotic Nigerians will not want to cause undue hardship and put Nigeria at an undue disadvantage in any regard. While we respect their rights and their views on the issues of ambassadorial nominees, we expect that in coming to whatever decision, they will consider patriotism and put into cognizance the interest of their own country and not probably political considerations or even personal considerations to bring undue hardship and disadvantage to their own country.

    On the Federal Character principle, he said: “Of course we have read in the newspapers some of their concerns such as federal character and so on. At the last count my recollection is that out of the 47 diplomat nominees, …. Out of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, 32 states were represented. While the constitution preaches federal character, it does not say that every state must be represented in any appointment, except of course in the case of ministers. Not in all other appointments, so the spirit of the constitution has been fully satisfied by having 32 ambassadors out of 36 plus one. I believe that every objective analyst will agree with this.”

    Listing some of the criteria adopted in the nomination of the ambassadors, apart from merit and qualifications, he said that it was important not to appoint someone an ambassador that will soon retire.

    He said: “So one of the criteria the person must have is that he must not be less than 30 months to retirement.

    “If you know the processes of nominating and deploying ambassadors you will know that for example, it is highly unlikely that the Senate will be done with it within the next two, three weeks. These ambassadors will need to be presented to the countries where they are going to be posted for checks and confirmation by those countries.

    “We cannot dictate the speed at which they will do it, so it could take in all honesty probably six to seven months for an ambassador to fully be cleared and assume his new post. It will take longer still for him to acclimatise and settle down in his work. There have been a subsisting policy not by this regime alone that it will be good for someone who has 30 months to retire not be be posted because then he will just be settling down before retiring, it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

    He said that another criteria considered was the accelerating level of the nominee, which must be grade level 16 or 17.

    “Due to no fault of this government, not all states have people in the ministry of foreign affairs, in the foreign service department that met this criteria,” he stated.

    He also said that the criteria included consideration for specialist areas, satisfying requirement of gender sensitivity, while the nominee must also be change compatible.

    He also said that other ambassadorial appointments will come from outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or related agencies that will provide opportunity for the states that didn’t make the list.

  • ENIOLA BADMUS JOINS LEAGUE OF BRAND AMBASSADORS

    ENIOLA BADMUS JOINS LEAGUE OF BRAND AMBASSADORS

    PLUS-SIZE actress, Akindele Olufunke Ayotunde, popularly known as Eniola Badmus recently joined the brand ambassador league. The Gbogbo Big Girls star joined the likes of Olamide , Ice Prince, and Francis Odega as brand ambassadors of Telco giant; Etisalat.  Her official campaign for the company was recently released online, even though she signed up with them a few weeks ago.

    The Instagram advert introducing her as the latest addition of Etisalat to their ambassadorial train has the buxom actress gorgeously adorned in traditional lace attire with a matching intricately tied headgear in a well stocked fabric shop, apparently in the role of a Lagos fabric merchant. She is chatting with an also gorgeously attired female. Her post hollers at the audience, urging them to get Etisalat Sims to enjoy lots of freebies, and goodies.

    She posted, “9ja!! Join us to welcome the newest member of the Etisalat Family @eniola_badmus. You still dey there? Shoe still dey wear you? Get that etisalat SIM today and begin to enjoy awoof berekete After all #WeAllWantMore#YouDeserveMore.”

    Enibad, as she is called by some fans also has a rascally persona, in spite of belonging to the elite league of educated Yoruba actresses. She holds a first degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Ibadan, and a Masters degree from the Lagos State University.