Over 11 career ambassadors under the aegis of Association of Retired Career Ambassadors yesterday visited the Prof Ibrahim Gambari led Foreign Policy and Diaspora committee of the National Conference meeting at the NICON Luxury Hotel Abuja calling for the establishment of a separate and independent Foreign Service in the country.
The Chairman of the association, Ambassador Isaac Sagay told the members of the committee that it is wrong for anybody to be an ambassador.
According to the Ambassador Sagay, the ministry should be given autonomy to regulate the quality of people that come into the Foreign Service, to pursue the policies of government without interference and to be able to project the Foreign Service the way other countries project theirs.
Other ambassadors also spoke about some of the challenges of the ministry ranging from funding constraints to the employment of incompetent people and posting of non career diplomats to the ministry.
The group said the enemies of a separate Foreign Service for a long time have killed the idea under the camouflage that it is elitist and that those clamouring for it were arrogant.
Welcoming the group, the chairman, Prof Gambari read out the mandate of the committee and told them that at the end of the conference the resolutions of the conference would be subjected to a referendum to be included in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to Gambari, the sub-committees of his committee had earlier submitted their reports and they were in the process of drafting their final reports to be submitted to the leadership of the conference.
