Nigeria. Tuesday, recalled its ambassador to Indonesia, Mr. Usman Ogar, “for consultations” in protest over the manhandling of an official of Nigeria’s embassy in that country. A video of the assault is still trending on social media. It shows the diplomat apparently in pain while unyielding Indonesian immigration officers pinned his head to the seat of a car. He was heard shouting “I can’t breathe.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who announced Ogar’s recall at a press briefing in Abuja, stated that the federal government would review the bilateral relations between Nigeria and the Asian country. He said when the ministry saw the video of the diplomat who was being restrained by Indonesian immigration officers in a moving car on social media, it immediately contacted the ambassador in Indonesia, who gave a verbal account of what happened.
The minister added that the envoy confirmed that the video was indeed of a Nigerian diplomat in Indonesia, noting that the “illegal action”took place during a roundup by Indonesian immigration officials searching for irregular migrants. “What we have decided to do is to recall for consultations immediately our Nigerian ambassador in Jakarta and we will have full consultations at the highest level and decide what next step to take, including a review, of course, of our relations with Indonesia.”
Onyeama said that the action of the immigration officers was a clear breach of the Vienna Convention, adding that it was “an act of egregious international delinquency.” “The Nigerian government [has] requested that the Indonesian government take severe and appropriate sanction against the immigration officials that were involved in the act of brazen criminality.”
The convention the minister was referring to is the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic and Consular Rules of 1961 which state expressly that the person of a diplomat is inviolable. We condemn this indecent treatment of a human being. We welcome the tough talk from our minister. It is not only the diplomat that was humiliated, but Nigeria as sovereign nation as well.
We also recognize the cautiousness of the Nigerian government, restraining itself from breaking all ties with Indonesia. This “flowery way” of registering Nigeria’s displeasure is appropriate for now. The government needs all the facts and circumstances of the incident before considering a hard-line action if need be.
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