• Super Admin
• 07 Mar, 2026

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised the federal government over its recent announcement of ambassadorial postings, describing the move as a diplomatic blunder that could expose Nigeria to international embarrassment. In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi on Friday, the opposition party said the Tinubu administration violated established diplomatic protocol by publicly announcing the postings before securing the required agrément, the consent of host countries as stipulated under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Abdullahi said the procedure under international law requires that the receiving country first approve a nominee through diplomatic channels before any official announcement is made. "By announcing appointments and then requesting consent, it indicates that the government does not know what it is doing. You cannot announce postings and say in the same statement that you are just requesting agrément," he said. According to the ADC spokesman, the process is designed to prevent diplomatic embarrassment in cases where a nominee may be rejected by the host country after due diligence. "It is in order to save the sending country the embarrassment that a rejection may cause that the process is usually done behind the scenes. But this government does not get it," Abdullahi added. The party also criticised what it described as inconsistencies in the government's diplomatic appointments, recalling that similar announcements had previously been made regarding postings to the United Kingdom, the United States and France. "After the blunder of similarly announcing postings to the UK, the United States and France last year, including sending an unscreened ambassador to Turkey, we would have expected the government to learn its lessons and course-correct," he said. ADC further questioned why the government announced only 65 ambassadors for Nigeria's 109 diplomatic missions worldwide, leaving 44 missions without designated envoys. "Equally troubling is the incomplete nature of the announcement itself. Nigeria maintains 109 diplomatic missions around the world, yet the government has only announced 65 ambassadors," Abdullahi said. "What happens to the remaining 44 missions? Are those posts to remain vacant indefinitely while Nigeria's diplomatic presence continues to shrink at a time of rising global uncertainty?" he queried. The party also questioned the timing of the announcement, noting that it came more than three months after the Senate confirmed the nominees. "The question to ask is: why did it take the government more than three months after nominating these ambassadors before now requesting consent?" Abdullahi said. He warned that failure to properly manage diplomatic appointments could weaken Nigeria's international representation. "The Tinubu government has 449 days left. And like we have repeatedly warned, 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," he said. Source: https://authorityngr.com/2026/03/07/adc-faults-tinubu-over-ambassadorial-postings-cites-diplomatic-protocol-breach/