It is a good thing that at long last the Executive Branch and members of our National Assembly are now engaged in the process of putting in place the top echelon of our diplomatic corps as President Ahmed Bola Tinubu recently submitted the full list of career and non-career ambassadors for consideration by the legislative branch as demanded by the law and convention of our country.
It is the hope of all well-meaning Nigerians that when the process is speedily concluded and the diplomats are in place, in postings to key countries of the world, their expected efforts at economic diplomacy would complement efforts of those of the economic team here at home and help in the eventual revival of the country’s economy. With the conclusion of the process, our country will also be able to handle many of her diplomatic challenges which turn to prop up every now and then. The latest is the military collabo between the USA and Nigeria to deal with ISIL and the other terrorists’ threat in some parts of our country.
However, while the screening of the diplomats- designates goes on, this reporter wishes to offer privileged information available to me to patriotically draw the attention of the relevant authorities to some of the murmurings, grumbling and complaining of a key portion of the middle level foreign affairs officers who are currently posted abroad. The aim of this to get the relevant authorities concerned to do what is necessary to urgently address the genuine plight of the abovementioned officers so that their being on postings abroad will not be just in name but in the actual work they are expected to do on behalf of the country for its goodness and greatness.
The first major trouble the diplomats have is with their salaries. At present, all is not well at all financially with some, if not all, members of the foreign service staff as a result of which some, if not all of them, are owing their landlords up to 8-12 months’ rent. These officers are in this embarrassing state of affairs because they have not been paid their salaries for the past six months. Surely, this is not good enough. Whether here at home or over there abroad, it is not pleasant to owe landlords their rents. When that happens, relationship between the two parties becomes soured with the foreign tenants suffering the greater pain. None of them will have the necessary peace of mind to live their lives and carry out even their routine functions. And landlords are the same all over the world. To put it diplomatically, some of them are not gentlemen.
In most cases, they seem to be mean, desperate and unforgiving individuals or corporate entities who build houses as a way to earn a decent income or something to supplement their earnings from some other sources. And if it is very unpleasant to owe a landlord at home here his rents, it is more unpleasant to do so abroad especially when you are a diplomat, a person sent purposely to create a good image for your country. That will be a contradiction in purpose and action. I think that it is mightily better not to send a diplomat to live abroad in another man’s country at all than send him in a manner or state that he is likely to ultimately bring shame and reproach not only to himself but to his country as well.
Apart from the difficulty in paying rents, another issue which the diplomats contend with over there is fulfilling their other socio-economic responsibilities. It needs no stating to say that a person who is owing his landlord will also be likely to be unable to take proper care of the education of his children or dependents even in countries where education is virtually free. The issue of education is even more humiliating and destructive of progress than the shame of inability to pay rents.
As if all these before stated deficiencies are not enough, the career foreign service staff in particular also suffer deprivation from a particular policy of government which they have no control over but which has created in them an intense jealousy and loss of morale.
During the Muhammadu Buhari days, the FG approved the monetization policy for the foreign service personnel. Unfortunately for the career foreign affairs officers who are the core staff in the diplomatic work, they do not enjoy the monetization benefits as much as the Finance Attaches and the Immigration Attaches who are considered support staff. The diplomatic staff describe as stark and unsustainable the disparity between what they get and what their colleagues in the finance and immigration departments get when compared. Their wish is that immediate efforts be made to bring about fairness and equity among all staff.
The diplomatic cadre are particularly unhappy with the fact that the Finance Attaches tend to dabble into diplomatic affairs. They say their colleagues in non-diplomatic mission must learn to respect mission protocols and boundaries, regardless of rank or levels. They say overstepping into diplomatic matters, approval and superseding the Head of Mission is a serious breach of conduct.
Another grievance of the diplomatic service staff posted abroad is that some of them have been waiting for over a year now without their families joining them and the reason is that the government has not released the flight allowances for their separated family members to undertake the trip of rejoining their spouses or family heads. This forced separation, so to say, causes not a little hardship and emotional pain for both parties involved and need to be addressed as soon as possible in order to boost the morale of those who are abroad to fight our many diplomatic fights for us and emotional stability to those left behind who have endured the pain.
What some of the key figures in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs comfortably seated at home here do not know is that when some of the career foreign affairs officers on posting abroad did when they realized that the flight allowances will not be released in time for them to take every member of their household with them abroad was that they borrowed huge sums of money to ensure that their spouses and dependents go along with them. Those monies borrowed are attracting huge interest which keep growing by the day so long as the principal is not repaid.
Whatever needs to be done now must include an emphasis on equal and fair treatment of all officers abroad. You cannot have a group of officers facing the same or similar challenges together abroad while policies are made which benefit others while others are deprived. It is not good enough. Let no one be made to regret that he or she was not a Finance Attache or an Immigration Officer on posting abroad. Any one charged with the responsibility of correcting these anomalies should act swiftly to ensure that all Nigerians on diplomatic posting abroad enjoy a fair and equitable benefit of full diplomatic service.
In the eyes of many Nigerians, the Tinubu government is an offshoot of the Buhari government before it. Measures should, therefore, be taken urgently to implement the approved funding policy of the foreign missions done by President Buhari.
As far as I am concerned, what the Nigerian Government has done or fails to do to our diplomatic missions abroad and the officers who man those missions is a thing of great disgrace. This problem did not start yesterday. It has been so since when our country started witnessing the weak hands of administrators in the administration of our affairs. Ultimately, the poor treatment brings harm to those on posting abroad. But the greater harm comes on the image of our potentially great country. Something ought to be done to correct things. We have had enough of these problems.
Idang Alibi was a member of the Daily Trust Editorial Board. He now lives as a retiree in Abuja.
