• Securing Agrement from host countries ‘ll take one year, Says retired envoy
By Abiola Olawale
Elderstatesman, renowned international affairs scholar and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has criticized President Bola Tinubu for failing to appoint ambassadors more than two years into his administration.
This is as Akinyemi, a foremost Professor of Political Science and international relations, who also once served as Director- General of the prestigious Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), described the delay as unprecedented, and an unexplainable aberration in diplomatic practice globally.
Akinyemi said Nigerians deserve to know why they don’t have Ambassadors at diplomatic posts in various countries across the world.
Akinyemi, a distinguished scholar, who is well respected for initiating the pragmatic concept of Concert of Medium Powers during his time as foreign minister in 1987, as a consultative body, made up of regional representative states(countries) of about 16, with significant amount of regional influence, to act together in mediatory role in times of conflicts, and serve as a bridge between various competing interests in the global system, noted that non- appointment of ambassadors has left very severe negative impact on Nigeria globally.
Akinyemi also initiated the technical aids coprs(TAC) while he was in office-an agency that blossomed into a flourishing entity within the ministry of foreign affairs in Nigeria.
Weighing in on the non-nomination of ambassadors more than two years into the Bola Tinubu administration, Akinyemi said the absence of ambassadors in Nigeria’s 109 diplomatic missions worldwide has serious negative implications for Nigeria.
According to him, it has negatively affected the country’s global standing, diplomatic effectiveness and the way Nigerians are regarded globally.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, the former Minister who described the situation as “unusual,” emphasized that Tinubu owes the public an explanation for the aberration.
“I think the President owes us really an explanation. There must be something there, and that makes it difficult for me to explain. Well, it’s not my job to explain. It’s the job of the foreign minister to explain why we don’t have ambassadors after two years of this administration.
“It cannot be due to lack of money, because since this government came on board, you could see how revenue has increased, and what they’ve done with the revenue is to increase money going to the states, increase money going to the National Assembly. Surely, part of this increase in revenue would have been made available to have ambassadors in different countries,” he said.
In the meantime, a retired career Ambassador who served in many countries in Europe has warned that with the way the nomination of Ambassadors is being handled, Nigeria risk not having Ambadsadors until the end of 2026 even if the President were to nominate Ambassadors today.
He said: “Even if the President nominates Ambassadors effective today, and the Senate confirms expeditiously, these nominees can’t be deployed to their various countries for resumption because the process of securing Agrement from host countries could take another one full year, while some may not even grant Agrement for various reasons. Appointment, deployment and granting of Agrement (Approval by the receiving country for the Ambassadorial nominee to resume having done their own investigations about the nominees) will typically take up to a year, except in countries in Africa. These are different stages, which are complex and outside the remit of the sending country. We have had many instances in the past where Ambassadorial nominees were rejected by receiving countries after due investigations and background checks. Fir example, Prof Tunde Adeniran was nominated as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States but the US government declined him Agrement. His step-son apparently had some issues in the US and it was on that ground he was rejected by the US government. So many countries decline Agrement. So it is not automatic. Nomination, securing Agrement, presentation of letters of Credence and completion of tour of duty are very, very complicated processes. So even if you are nominated as an ambassadorial nominee, there is no gurantee that you will make it until the host country accepts you having done their due diligence, to determine if you have a clean bill of health or not.”
Recall that President Tinubu recalled all Nigerian ambassadors in September, 2023, leaving Nigeria’s embassies, high commissions, and consulates without substantive heads.
Since then, diplomatic missions have been managed by chargés d’affaires and lower-ranking officials, who lack the authority to engage fully with host countries authorities or drive high-level negotiations.
Recently, the President while acknowledging the delay in nomination of ambassadors, attributed it to what he called the difficulty in selecting appropriate figures for the ambassadorial roles.
On September 2, 2025, during a meeting with members of The Buhari Organisation(TBO), Tinubu stated:“I couldn’t appoint everybody that I could have appointed. Thank you for your patience till now. I still have some slots for ambassadorial positions that too many people are craving for, but it’s not easy stitching together those names.”
