- Directors, Commissioners, Top Govt Officials Denied Access To UN Building
By Abiola Olawale
Several high-ranking officials from the National Population Commission (NPC) and other agencies of government were barred from gaining access to the sessions and premises of the United Nations during the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) held in New York, United States recently.
This situation arose following the submission of a stringent delegation list by the Presidency to the Nigerian Permanent Mission in New York in a bid to cut down excessive government expenses and fruitless foreign travels.
Reports reaching The New Diplomat indicate that these top officials were barred from gaining access to the premises and sessions of the UNGA because their names were not on the list submitted by the Federal Government to the Nigerian Permanent Mission in New York for accreditation.
It was gathered that the NPC Commissioner representing Bayelsa State, Mrs. Gloria Izonfuo, and a senior Director of the NPC, one Mrs Essien, and other government officials including a Personal Assistant to the Chairman of NPC, were among those trapped in the web upon arriving in New York after securing applicable approvals for the trip on what turned out to a fruitless trip.
These officials, who had travelled to New York as government representatives, were said to have been denied access because their names were conspicuously missing from the authorized list of government officials permitted to officially participate in various sessions at the UNGA at government cost.
However, the Executive Chairman of the NPC, Hon. Nasir Isa Kwarra who was granted entry into the UN as his name was said to be on the list submitted by the Federal government succeeded in securing accreditation for his Personal Assistant, leaving Mrs Izonfuo (Commissioner representing Bayelsa State at NPC and Mrs Essien, a senior director at the NPC) completely stranded.
Sources who spoke with The New Diplomat revealed that this development, and given the fact that their names were not on the official list, left these two top NPC officials in a state of quandary.
The New Diplomat gathered that typically in previous years the NPC delegation to UNGA usually range from 12 to 14 members team. “ But this year, the government reduced the delegation to only four. And two out of the four are the focal persons to meet with various UN agencies teams. So it was in order that the director and the commissioner who are focal persons and desk officials travelled to participate in those focal deliberations. But we don’t know where the mix up came from because they got approvals to travel for UNGA,” added a source.
However, the mix up may have caught up with Izonfuo, Essien, and several other government officials who had secured appropriate approvals only to find out upon arriving in New York that their names are not on the federal government authorized list for accreditation.
The question many are asking: How did they secure approval for these trips when it was apparent that the presidency had sent an authorized list to New York?
The unfolding situation is said to have raised significant concerns within Government circles, as they have begun steps to ascertain what may have caused the mix up.
Two pertinent questions also being asked are: Why would the Chairman of NPC successfully make a case for his personal Assistant to be accredited and leave the two focal persons (Director and Comissioner) whose schedule and defined responsibilities it is to engage with the designated UN agencies on population matters in a state of lurch?
In fact, what is a PA to the NPC Chairman doing at UNGA?
The development happened despite President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s earlier directive in September, which prohibited government officials lacking clearly defined responsibilities from engaging in trips for the UNGA.
The president, in a statement had said the directive was aimed at reducing the size of Nigeria’s official delegation to the UNGA meetings in New York, United States.
