UK poised to get Nigerian high commissioner soon as Tinubu sends three-man list to senate

NIGERIA is all set to soon appoint a substantive high commissioner to the UK after President Bola Tinubu forwarded the names of three ambassadorial nominees to the senate for approval with one of them expected to be posted to London soon.

In response to growing calls for the appointment of full time substantive ambassadors, President Tinubu finally sent the names of Kayode Are from Ogun State, Aminu Dalhatu from Jigawa and Ayodele Oke from Oyo State, to the senate for approval. They are expected to take charge of the three large embassies on the UK, US and Russia once their nominations are approved by the senate.

Over the next week, the senate is expected to approve these three names, with one of them then due to be named as Nigeria's high commissioner to the UK. Since August 2024, the UK has not had a substantive high commissioner, with career diplomatic Ambassador Mohammed Maidugu filing the role in an active capacity.

Upon being elected in 2023, President Tinubu recalled all of the political ambassadors and high commissioners, leaving only the career diplomats in place, creating a vacuum in some instances. However, in an interview he granted in September, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria's foreign minister, dismissed concerns that diplomatic missions were paralysed without appointed envoys.

Presenting the list to the National Assembly, senate president, Senator Godswill Akpabio, said: “The list contains three names for now. I am sure others will follow."

Ambassador Tuggar added: "All our embassies are functioning well as the chargé d’affairs in each mission is carrying out responsibilities effectively. The absence of ambassadors has not created a vacuum."

Ambassador Ayodele Oke, a former director-general of the National Intelligence Agency has been strongly tipped by some political commentators as a possible high commissioner to the UK. He was sacked on October 30 2017 by President Muhammadu Buhari after he was wrongly accused of misconduct for which he was later cleared by a court of law in what later turned out to be a sinisterly contrived move to oust him.