By Achile Danjuma
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has strongly condemned the announcement of ambassadorial postings by the administration of President Bola Tinubu, labeling the exercise a glaring testament to the government’s “storied incompetence” and a violation of established diplomatic protocol.
In a press statement issued on Friday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, criticized the State House for publicly naming ambassadors-designate before securing the mandatory consent—known as agrément—from the receiving countries, a prerequisite enshrined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The ADC argued that this procedural misstep exposes Nigeria to potential international embarrassment, as host nations retain the right to reject a nominee after conducting background checks. By announcing postings and simultaneously stating that requests for agrément would be made, the government demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of diplomatic norms.
“After nearly three years in office, and three months after the Senate confirmation of the ambassadors, today’s announcement by the State House puts the cart before the horse and demonstrates the Tinubu administration’s inability to grasp the basic protocol of diplomatic relations,” the statement read in part.
The party highlighted that the process of seeking consent is traditionally conducted discreetly to avoid the public relations fallout of a rejection. It noted that this is not the first time the administration has stumbled in this area, referencing previous missteps involving postings to the United Kingdom, the United States, and France last year, as well as the deployment of an unscreened ambassador to Turkey.
“Characteristically, the Tinubu government appears more concerned with responding to political pressure than doing the right thing,” Abdullahi added.
The ADC also raised concerns over the scope and transparency of the announcement. While Nigeria maintains approximately 109 diplomatic missions globally, the government only named envoys for 65 of them. The party questioned the fate of the remaining 44 missions, asking whether they would remain vacant or if Nigeria was planning to degrade its diplomatic presence amid rising global uncertainties.
“Is Nigeria closing down or degrading these missions? What strategy would have informed this choice?” the statement queried.
The opposition party further criticized the timing of the request for consent, questioning why it took the administration over three months after the Senate confirmation of the nominees to initiate the process.
With the Tinubu administration now having 449 days left in its current term, the ADC warned that the failure to adequately staff Nigeria’s foreign missions could have severe consequences for the country’s standing on the global stage.
“This may be the first administration in Nigeria so incompetent that it could not even appoint ambassadors at a time Nigeria needs to sit at the table at the highest levels of global governance. The damage that would do to the country is indeed hard to contemplate,” the statement concluded.