By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata
Former presidential aide, Lauretta Onochie, has taken a swipe at President Bola Tinubu over the prolonged delay in appointing new ambassadors nearly two years after recalling all of Nigeria’s foreign envoys.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, Onochie accused the president of governing the country “like a private WhatsApp group,” slamming the failure to fill key diplomatic positions since September 2023.
“It’s been almost two years, and Nigeria still has no ambassadors in several countries,” she wrote. “We have no official representation where it matters most, yet we’re busy cozying up to places like St. Lucia and Kazakhstan, where idolising a Nigerian President may come easy, for the right price.”
Onochie’s comments reflect growing concern over the vacuum in Nigeria’s diplomatic corps.
Ambassadors are critical in representing the nation’s interests abroad and maintaining bilateral relations.
Observers warn that the continued absence of substantive ambassadors could weaken Nigeria’s global influence and disrupt its foreign policy priorities.
