ABUJA: President Bola Tinubu has nominated three non-career ambassadors to represent Nigeria in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. The nominations were forwarded to the Senate on Wednesday for screening and confirmation.
The nominees are Ayodele Oke, Colonel Lateef Are (retd.), and Amin Dalhatu, according to a post by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on X. Their postings are expected to be finalised after the Senate completes its confirmation process.
Dalhatu previously served as Nigeria’s ambassador to South Korea during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Oke, an alumnus of Emory University in Atlanta, is a former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). He also represented Nigeria at the Secretariat of the Commonwealth of Nations in London.
A former Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS) from 1999 to 2007, Are later served as National Security Adviser in 2010.
He was also an officer in the Directorate of Military Intelligence and graduated with First Class Honours in Psychology from the University of Ibadan in 1980.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, read Tinubu’s letter during plenary and directed the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs to review the nominations and report back within one week.
The appointments come amid renewed calls from stakeholders urging the President to fill vacant ambassadorial positions.
Former External Affairs Minister Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi had recently stressed the importance of ambassadorial representation despite the ease of accessing information online.
Diplomacy runs on ambassadorial contact… We need to fill these posts, Akinyemi said during a Television interview in September.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier dismissed criticisms over delays, stating that Nigerian missions remained functional and were being run by experienced diplomats, including chargés d’affaires.
The ministry also acknowledged long-standing structural and funding challenges within the foreign service.
President Tinubu had recalled all ambassadors in September 2023 as part of a policy reset for Nigeria’s diplomatic missions leaving key posts in major countries vacant until now.
