By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives, Thursday, displayed anger against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over a purported directive to foreign missions to disregard the appropriation act.
Considering a motion to that effect, the House said there was a purported letter to the missions not to spend funds already appropriated to them in the law unless they take a recourse to the ministry.
The House noted that the consequent effects were the dilapidated structure and unkempt offices and environment the missions had become.
To this end, the parliament summoned the minister, Geoffrey Onyeama and the permanent secretary of the Ministry, Ambassador Gabriel Addu’a for allegedly circumventing the law.
It also directed the Ministry’s headquarters to expressly comply with the provision of Section 11 of the 2022 Appropriations Act( Power of Nigerian Embassies and Missions) and report such compliance to the House within one week.
Titled “A motion calling on the federal government to mandatorily compel the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement the provisions of the 2022 Appropriation Act (S.11), which empowers Nigeria Embassies/High Commissions across the world to spend the capital components of their budget without recourse to the headquarters of the Ministry”, the motion was presented at the plenary under matter of urgent public importance by Hon. Maigari Bello Kasımu representing Jalingo/yorro and zing federal constituency of Taraba, (APC).
Presenting the motion, Kasımu said “For a very long time the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters has been steeped in various practices, actions and inactions that have negatively affected quality service-delivery in the Ministry and, especially, at post, where the nation’s image has been largely impugned by untoward media reports and other negative realities in the public domain that reveal the inability of Ambassadors/ High Commissioners,who are representatives of Mr. President, to settle ground rents,pay utility bills, purchase vehicles or rehabilitate dilapidated infrastructure in chancery buildings and quarters occupied by Foreign Service Officers across the globe.
“Nigerian Foreign Missions and Service Officers have been at the receiving end of the negative effects of the actions and inactions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters,which have sometimes resulted in hiring taxis for diplomats on official duties and in the forceful ejection of Ambassadors/High Commissions and other Foreign Service Officers from rented apartments with their personal effects and other property thrown into the streets of capital cities of the world even when such Embassies/High Commissions have budgeted capital funds lying unutilised in various bank accounts.
“The rot and official bottlenecks, which have continued to perpetuate all the negative things that go on in our foreign service and missions across the globe may, despite the magnanimity of Mr.President and the efforts of the National Assembly to make things better, continue if this House fails to do the needful;
“A section of the 2022 Appropriations Act,which was carefully crafted by the Legislature and assented to by Mr.President to address the rot, lethargy and official inertia that have been identified as bane to the development of our foreign service and missions,is now being challenged by some officials of government and unpatriotic individuals at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters.
“If the effrontery and impunity of those officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that are so flagrantly challenging a law signed by Mr.President, using diverse means, including writing of letters to counter provisions of an existing piece of law, are allowed to go unaddressed,we may wake up one morning,God forbid,to hear that the National Assembly has been sacked by the mere letter of one senior government official in one Ministry of Government.”
The motion however generated heated reactions.
In his contribution to the issue, the deputy minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu said there was need to for an investigation.
He said: “We should find out whether when a budget has been passed and assented to by the President and now, there is a motion on non implementation which has resulted in us asking the embassies to independently implement their budget without resource to the Ministry. From the budget, was there a sub head assigned to the embassies? If so, it means that Ministry is violating the appropriation law.
“If that is the case, i want to say there should be an investigative hearing and the letter written by the Permanent Secretary should be brought before that hearing to ascertain that a Permanent Secretary would have that audacity to circumvent the law. It is a very gracious offence and he would need to explain because I know that when circumvent the law, there is a penalty for that. It is not just enough for us to say direct the embassies, we should go further to ensure that the man that has committed that crime is brought to book”, he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hon. Yusuf Buba recalled the horrible images of the country’s missions abroad.
