Fani-Kayode and Pedro said to be among candidates being screened for ambassadorial roles

FORMER aviation minister Femi Fani-Kayode and ex-Lagos State deputy governor Femi Pedro are among dozens of candidates currently being vetted by the presidency to fill diplomatic positions in Nigeria's overseas missions.

Back in 2023, President Bola Tinubu recalled all political appointees to diplomatic missions worldwide, only leaving those who were career diplomats in place. Since then, numerous factors including a paucity of funds and cabinet reshuffles have delayed the appointment of substantive high commissioners and ambassadors.

it now appears that these hurdles have finally been overcome as the federal government has begun vetting potential candidates to fill diplomatic roles in its 109 missions,76 embassies, 22 high commissions and 11 global consulates. Apparently Messrs Fani-Kayode and Pedro top the list and are expected to get big missions like the UK, US, France, Germany, Russia or Canada.

For now, the vetting is not being conducted centrally, as nominees are being asked to report to the Department of State Security (DSS) offices nearest to them. They are being asked to provide details of their personal education and work history.

One government source said: “They’re already doing security checks with the DSS. When they have cleared security checks, we will release the list. Only those who have been cleared will be announced and the process is ongoing. I know that we should have a list before the end of this month, April.”

A second source added “The vetting is not done centrally. It is based on the location of the nominees. For now, nominees have been reached to provide personal history and information such as where they attended school, what appointments they have held and the like."

Last December, President Tinubu spent part of his holiday reviewing the names of nominees for ambassadorial roles, with plans to send a list to the National Assembly for approval. However, it appears that he later changed his mind partly because the government did not have the $1bn required to pay arrears of foreign service officials, settle a backlog of overheads, replace ageing vehicles and renovate embassy buildings.

One foreign ministry spokesman said:“You see, the major issue is money. Not money to pay the ambassadors because how much is their salaries and benefits? The main money is capital expenditure as by the time they put the cost together to fix the issues, it is running to almost $1bn.

“Most of those embassies, almost 90%, are rundown. Either the residence is not good, the embassy does not have a functional office, or their rent has expired. The embassies that are buoyant may not be up to 10 as we speak."

Minister of foreign affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, said last year that appointing ambassadors without the financial resources to support their travel and the effective running of missions abroad was pointless he added that there is no point sending out ambassadors if you do not have the funds for them to even travel to their designated countries and to run the missions effectively.

One other source said that other names on the list include Fola Adeola, the founder of Guaranty Trust Bank and Reno Omokri, a former aide of President Goodluck Jonathan, might be on it too. Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, added that the lists will still go through certain processes before they are released.