Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), said that the indebtedness faced by Nigerian diplomatic missions across the world is beyond imagination. He stated this in Abuja during the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on the Review of Number and Strategy for Resourcing Nigeria’s Diplomatic Missions Worldwide, with a mandate to review all previous reports on the establishment of foreign missions and measures taken to effectively and economically manage Nigeria’s Mission.
While inaugurating the committee of 13 men, Mustapha said the reports of the committee will help the President tackle the root causes of the state of affairs of the Diplomatic Missions and its impact on the image of Nigeria in the international front, adding that the lingering indebtedness the foreign missions are facing has negatively affected the nation’s integrity.
His words: “As we are all aware, our Diplomatic Missions around the world are currently faced with multifaceted challenges following, among others, the scale of perennial indebtedness they find themselves. This poses attendant damage to our nation’s integrity. Consequent upon these, Mr. President approved the constitution of this Presidential Committee.
“The cost-saving measures taken by the previous administrations in reviewing the foreign missions had not yielded the desired results, hence the constitution of the Committee.”
In conclusion, the chairman of the committee, Ambassador Martin Uhomoibi, a retired Federal Permanent Secretary, thanked President Buhari for the confidence reposed in him and the members of his committee to review the foreign mission service with the aim of repositioning it for effective service delivery, in his acceptance speech.
