The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, Tuesday, decried the indebtedness faced by Nigerian diplomatic missions across the world.
The SGF made this known in Abuja during the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on the Review of Number and Strategy for Resourcing Nigeria’s Diplomatic Missions Worldwide, with the mandate of reviewing all previous reports on the establishment of foreign missions and measures taken to effectively and economically manage Nigeria’s Mission.
While inaugurating the 13-man committee, Mustapha said the report of the committee would enable President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle the root causes of the critical state of affairs of the diplomatic missions and its impact on the image of Nigeria in the international arena.
He stated that the lingering indebtedness being faced by the foreign missions has affected the nation’s integrity negatively.
Mustapha said, “As we are all aware, our Diplomatic Missions around the world are currently faced with multifaceted challenges following, among others, the scale of perennial indebtedness they find themselves.
“This poses attendant damage to our nation’s integrity. Consequent upon these, Mr. President approved the constitution of this Presidential Committee.”
He also noted that some of “the cost-saving measures taken by the previous administrations in reviewing the foreign missions had not yielded the desired results, hence the constitution of the Committee”.
In his acceptance speech, the chairman of the committee, Ambassador Martin Uhomoibi, a retired Federal Permanent Secretary, thanked President Buhari for the confidence reposed in him and the members of his committee to review the foreign mission service with the aim of repositioning it for effective service delivery.