The Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has decried the state and operational mode of Nigerian embassies globally, calling for improved condition of service for heads of foreign missions.

The speaker regretted the working condition of staff of the embassies, saying it encourages all forms of corruption as workers in the affected offices device all means of survival to the detriment of the nation’s image.

He spoke yesterday during a meeting with the minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyema on how to fine tune ways for effective functioning of the nation’s missions abroad

I have been all over the world for one official duty or the other and then of course the first port of call is always the embassy. Honestly, unless we want to kid ourselves it makes you not to be proud to be a Nigerian. The state of affairs of where these people are. What they are doing their lifestyle. What it leads to sometimes even to corruption and you cannot even blame them,

he said.

Even within Africa or outside of Africa, we call people ambassadors. I think the meaning of ambassador is very clear. They are a reflection of Nigeria. But when an ambassador does not have a car or his car is 15 years old and it breaks down every single time, the car has even broken down with me in it before. And they had to hurriedly roll up the Nigerian flag and put it in their pockets to avoid embarrassment.

You go to an embassy, the toilet is not working. You ask them why? they say there is no money. You go into an embassy the air conditioners have packed up. I can go on and on. That is what got us here.

I cannot begin to tell you what I have seen and what I have heard. Hon Minister I know you are very exposed. I have known you for some time even before politics and I know that you will not stand for this.

That is why we thought this is what we need to do. Insert a clause that would allow these people remove the red tape. Remove the bureaucratic red tape and allow these people to do what they need to do.

He further noted that if anyone is found wanting, the law is there. Anyone that breaches the law would face the penalty.

But we cannot in the name of saying they would breach the law allow Nigeria and Nigerians to suffer. You hear of people withholding the green passport or visas because they are trying to generate money. Taking bribes to give people visas and passports because they are trying to generate money, because money is not forthcoming from their home country,

he said.

According to him, there is no point appropriating money and the money is not used saying a lot of research and homework has been done before seeking financial autonomy for the embassies

Onyema said the essence of the meeting was to promote the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.

That is our guiding principle and philosophy and that is what we would do to the best of our ability. Thank you for convening this meeting. Hopefully it would be something that would enable us and all of the country to move forward in the best interest of our citizens,

he said.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.