Senator Shehu Sani, former Kaduna Central Senator, has
underscored the need for an economic review of the dilapidated state of
Nigerian Embassies abroad, to avoid colossal loss of foreign missions.
Sani, a former Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Affairs in the eighth Senate, made this known in an interview with the
News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
He spoke in reaction to complaints about the dilapidated
state of Nigerian embassies abroad and its economic consequences to the country
on funding repairs of such missions.
He observed Nigeria had been renting about 60 per cent of the nation’s embassies abroad, saying such was costly in the face of ongoing challenges currently faced in the country.
“I found out that we have been renting about 60 per cent of
Nigerian embassies abroad, some existed far back as 1960 and we are still
unable to buy a house in those countries.
“From my observation, diplomatic staff have been fleecing
this country in the name of paying rents; they prefer Nigeria to keep renting
houses, rather than buying a building as an embassy.
“In the past, everything about the embassy is in the Foreign
Affairs ministry, but during the era of Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ambassadors go
to the Minister of Finance for them to be funded.
“As such, it left the foreign affairs ministry with little
or no choice on the embassy other than posting of diplomatic staff.
“Everything about the embassy should go back to the foreign
affairs ministry; we should have targets, every year we should buy 10
buildings, so that in five to six years, we are no more renting.”
The former lawmaker decried the embarrassment often caused
by landlords in relation to rent issues.
He stressed the need to buy more diplomatic houses and to
take stock of repairs of dilapidated Nigerian embassy buildings abroad, as
measures to proffer a solution to the problem.
“There are some buildings that we may not need; we have to
trade them off and put those ones away.
“I learnt we have a residence for Nigeria’s permanent
representatives in New York and that residence has not been used for decades.
“If that residence has not been used for decades, we have no
reason to keep that building, we need to sell it off, use the proceeds and buy
other properties in other countries.”
He noted that buying good diplomatic buildings could cost as
much as US$2 million, adding that such should be done to chart the way forward
to safeguard Nigerian embassy operations abroad.
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