Nigerian Embassy In Hungary Tops As Best-performed Mission Abroad, Says Coalition

Nigerian embassy in Hungary has emerged as the country’s best-performed embassy in the world, according to Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria (GCSDN)

The coalition claimed it arrived at this outcome after soliciting for diasporan votes from Nigerians familiar with the workings of embassies and missions.

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According to GCSDN, the criteria for scoring the embassies by voters include: efficiency in service delivery, assess to the embassy, concern for the interest of Nigerians, image building for Nigeria and the attraction of investments to Nigeria.

The GCSDN further said that following the announcement of the outcome, the embassy of Nigeria in Hungary scored the highest votes with 53 per cent of the total votes cast.

The New Diplomat could not independently ascertain or authenticate the metrics used by GCSDN vis-as-vis the roles assigned to various and specific Nigerian embassies and missions abroad.

For instance, the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations(UN), New York is accredited to the United Nations, a development which makes its mandate and role completely different from that of the Nigerian embassy in Hungary or the Nigerian embassy in Washington, DC.

Thus, in cases where missions and embassies deal with multilateral organizations, the role and mandate are typically different. This is quite distinct from an embassy that is accredited to a host country or has concurrent accreditation to neigbhouring countries.

Given this development, experts aver that the metrics for determining performance are are not therefore universal as they are case-specifics.

“It is erroneous or incorrect to use the same metrics you used for assessing the Embassy in Hungary for the Nigerian Permanent Mission in New York. They have distinction roles and mandate. So you have to demonstrate clear grasp and expertise on these issues in your survey. I didn’t see that in the survey,” a retired diplomat and former permanent secretary at the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Nigeria said.

However, the full data used by the GCSDN to arrive at its verdict were not available for scrutiny by The New Diplomat.

Also, the GCSDN did not clearly indicate the timeline, metrics, number of sampled respondents or voters, duration of poll and margin of error, etc which are typical dynamics in a survey of this nature.

However, The New Diplomat understands that the Embassy in Hungary presently has Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as its countries of her concurrent accreditation.

The Embassy is currently headed by Ambassador (Mrs) Ajayi Eniola Olaitan. According to the coalition, she arrived Hungary on 23rd October, 2017 and presented her letter of credence to the Hungarian government on 1st December, 2017.

Located in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, the embassy opened in 1992 after twenty-eight years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Hungary.

The Coalition said that the Nigerian mission in Hungary was closely followed by the embassy in Austria which made the number two spot with 48 per cent, while the Nigerian embassy in Switzerland came third garnering 42 per cent of the votes.

According to the coalition, out of the 51 missions listed for the assessment by Nigerians who took part in the voting process, the embassy in Italy was the least performing Nigerian mission abroad with 1.0 per cent rating, followed by the embassy in Indonesia with 1.1 per cent.

Presenting the scorecard during a virtual event, the Global Coordinator of GCSDN, Frederick Odorige said the assessment was important to spur on Nigerian missions and embassies abroad for quality service delivery in the discharge of their diplomatic responsibilities.

Going by his profile, Frederick Odorige, is a Hungary-based pastor and a PhD candidate at the National University, Budapest, Hungary.

He said: “As we criticize government’s failure, we must also appreciate government agencies that are performing well.

“In doing this, we shall be promoting good governance and encouraging others to improve on their services to Nigerian citizens abroad.

“Nigerians in the diaspora have shown dissatisfaction at the poor services of some Nigerian missions and we felt that it was an opportunity to organise a programme that could promote service delivery. There are some Nigerian embassies that are very hostile to Nigerians. In some cases, they promote fraudulent practices in the course of issuing or renewing Nigerian passports which could take as much as six months.”

He added: “Unfortunately, out of the 3465 votes cast, 62 were declared invalid because voters attempted to vote multiple times with various email addresses and the same IP addresses. Others used invalid e-mail addresses which the system filtered.

“We hope that INEC will ensure electronic voting system in 2023 where Nigerians could vote with their telephone SIM cards from the comfort of their homes. Such a system will bring an end to the high cost of organising elections, rigging, violence, vote buying and other electoral fraud.

“We also expect that INEC and the national assembly will ensure that Nigerians in the diaspora are allowed to vote from 2023. The Nigerian national assembly should also formulate strategies that could reserve 10 legislatives seats exclusively for Nigerians in the diaspora.

“We have sent a congratulatory message to the Ambassador of the embassy of Nigeria, Hungary, Dr. (Mrs) Eniola Olaitan Ajayi. We look forward to presenting her with the certificate of recognition on behalf of the embassy. The honour goes to the entire staff of the winning embassies. We shall do the same with the embassies in Austria and Switzerland.”

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