Coalition demands sack of Nigeria’s foreign minister over alleged incompetence

A coalition of civil society groups on transparency and accountability has asked President Bola Tinubu to sack his foreign affairs minister, Yusuf Tuggar, over allegations of incompetence and corruption.

This is the third time the group will raise the alarm over Mr Tuggar’s conduct as the foreign affairs minister.

The coalition, at a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, said the minister, a former ambassador to Germany in the immediate past administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, was unfit for the position he currently holds.

Rather than concentrate on the job he was appointed for, the coalition alleged the minister is busy working on how to actualise his gubernatorial ambition in Bauchi State in 2027.

“We still insist that we can never get it right at the diplomatic level and global stage with a character like Yusuf Tuggar as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He remains the worst Foreign Affairs Minister anyone can remember in the Nigerian nascent history.

“We are not cursing our country, but we will continue to lose out at the global stage because there is nothing Tuggar has to offer except an alleged illegal and corrupt sourcing of funds for his gubernatorial ambition in Bauch State in 2027,” a part of the text read by the conveners of the coalition, Igwe Ude-Umanta and Danesi Momoh, read.

Allegations

The coalition accused Mr Tuggar of deliberately misleading President Tinubu to prematurely terminate the appointment of ambassadors and high commissioners and recall them when there was no plan to replace them.

Apart from flouting procedural rules in the sudden recall of the ambassadors, the coalition said the action had stripped Nigeria diplomatically bare on the international stage.

It also alleged that the recall had placed the finances of the 109 foreign missions of the country in the hands of Mr Tuggar.

The federal government terminated the appointment of the ambassadors and high commissioners in September 2023, and nearly a year after the recall, no replacement has been named for them.

The lack of replacement for the diplomatic heads of the country’s foreign missions for almost a year, the group noted, is unprecedented in the country’s history. However, the Nigerian government, through Mr Tuggar, has said that it does not have the resources to mobilise new ambassadors and high commissioners.

Procedural breaches

The coalition noted that the foreign affairs minister breached specific codes during the recall of the ambassadors and high commissioners in the following ways:

– The strange and abrupt recall of Career and Non-career Nigerian Ambassadors and High Commissioners from all over the world in September 2023 was without any arrangements to replace them about 11 months after the recall; the government appears to be at a loss on how to proceed with filling those vacancies. This is a clear indication that there was no clarity at all about the decision to recall ambassadors and plans to replace them.

-The country incurred huge expenses through Authority to Incur Expenses (AIEs) and the demobilisation of recalled ambassadors.

-Mobilising a new set of ambassadors is also very expensive. The Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that Nigeria had no money to mobilise new ambassadors. This is a huge embarrassment and calls for the question: why did you recall the ones you have mobilised when you are not ready for their replacements? The answer to this question is at the centre of this whole matter.

-In July – December 2023, allocations of Embassies and High Commissions were withheld for alleged fraudulent intentions. This led to these missions incurring debts and facing threats of litigation. By the time the funds were released in January 2024, the forex crises had caught up, making it impossible to meet the piled-up bills. The minister then approached Mr President, who authorised a release of the shortfall. And this is the whole idea of the alleged fraud. To corruptly squeeze money out of the government. Who now pays for these bills gotten through administrative recklessness and mischief? It is the government through our commonwealth.

-It has never happened in the history of the world that a country is without ambassadors all over the world and for a period of 11 months. In Nigeria,specifically, this is the first time it is happening. And in doing so, all laid down rules were jettisoned.

-The recall of an ambassador is guided by very strict procedures that allow them to put things in place, including the mission, themselves and family. But in this case, that rule was deliberately abandoned. Rule 26 (3) stipulates that three months’ notice shall be given to officers before being posted home or abroad. But in this case, because Mr Tuggar was in a mad rush, he gave only two months’ notice in clear violation of the Nigerian Foreign Service Regulations. It took President Tinubu to grant the appeal of those diplomats in relation to the rule before they were given the necessary extension denied them by the grand plot of Ambassadors Tuggar and Lamuwa.

-In consideration of the education of the children of diplomats, Rule 26 (4) of the guidelines under reference also provides that general postings shall be timed to coincide with the School Year to enable officers arrange school programmes for their children. But in this case, for no case of any emergency, this was jettisoned thereby jeopardising the education of the children of those hurriedly recalled diplomats.

-Two (2) weeks before the deadline given to the recalled Ambassadors to return, AIEs (Authority to Incur Expenses) were sent to missions without cash backing. These AIEs deal with the extensive details of bringing envoys home, including logistics for self, spouse, children and personal staff. Due to the absence of cash backing, missions were requested to source funds to pay for passages. The implication of sourcing for funds is a diversion of funds made for personnel to non-personnel expenditure. This could lead to revolt, threats to staff, litigation and local hostilities as a result of non-payment of local staff.

Presidential jet seizure diplomatic embarrassment

The coalition noted that had Mr Tuggar been on top of his game as the country’s foreign affairs minister, the recent seizure of two Presidential jets – Dassault Falcon 7X with registration number 5N-FGU; Boeing 737-7N6/BBJ with registration number 5N-FGA, all Nigerian sovereign assets being part of Nigeria’s Presidential fleet should not have happened.

According to the group, the seizure by a Chinese company- Zhongfu International Investment FXE, which obtained an independent Arbitral Tribunal Order in Paris, France, over a bad business deal with the Ogun State Government, ridiculed the country at home and globally.

“The truth is that Nigeria will continue to suffer international shame because we do not have a global presence, courtesy of Ambassador Tuggar’s design,” the group noted.

The coalition further noted, “It is sad in an era of Renewed Hope when we had announced to the world that we are ready for business, we can operate a whole year without substantive representatives in the 109 missions of Nigeria across the world. It is a mockery of readiness for global business.”

All efforts to reach the minister’s spokesperson, Abu Obe Eche, for his response to the allegations failed by Monday evening.

As of the time of this report, he has yet to respond to the messages -both text and WhatsApp- sent to his phone number. His number also did not connect for a normal call, nor did he pick up his call via WhatsApp when our reporter called him.