ADC Accuses Tinubu Government of Diplomatic Protocol Breach

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of violating diplomatic protocol in the way it announced newly posted ambassadors.

The opposition party described the development as a diplomatic misstep and another indication of what it termed the government’s incompetence.

In a statement released on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party argued that announcing ambassadorial postings before obtaining the required approval known as agrément from host countries contradicts established diplomatic procedures.

According to the ADC, global diplomatic practice under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, particularly Article 4, requires a country to secure the consent of the receiving nation before formally announcing the appointment of an ambassador.

“After spending nearly three years in office, and even three months after the Senate confirmed the ambassadorial nominees, the latest announcement from the State House appears to have reversed the proper order of things and reflects the Tinubu administration’s failure to understand the fundamental procedures guiding diplomatic relations.

“Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, particularly Article 4, a sending state must first obtain the consent, known as agrément, of the receiving state before officially appointing or announcing a head of mission,” Abdullahi said.

He explained that requests for agrément are typically handled discreetly through diplomatic channels to prevent embarrassment if a host country declines the nominee.

“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 agreement,” he said.

The party said such actions could expose Nigeria to diplomatic embarrassment since host countries retain the right to accept or reject nominees after carrying out their own background checks.

“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,” the statement added.

The ADC also pointed to what it described as a similar error by the government last year when ambassadorial postings to countries including the United Kingdom, United States, and France were publicly announced.

The party further referenced what it called the deployment of an unscreened ambassador to Turkey, saying the government should have learned from previous mistakes.

“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,” Abdullahi stated.

The party also questioned why it took more than three months after the Senate confirmed the ambassadorial nominees before the government began requesting agrément from the host countries.

“The question to ask is: why did it take the government more than three months after nominating these ambassadors before now requesting consent?” he asked.

ADC also expressed concern about what it described as an incomplete list of ambassadorial appointments, noting that Nigeria maintains around 109 diplomatic missions worldwide but only 65 ambassadors were announced.

“Nigeria maintains 109 diplomatic missions around the world, yet the government has only announced 65 ambassadors. What happens to the remaining 44 missions? Are those posts to remain vacant indefinitely?” the party queried.

The party warned that leaving many diplomatic missions without ambassadors could weaken Nigeria’s global diplomatic presence at a time of increasing international challenges.

According to Abdullahi, the Tinubu administration has 449 days left in office, cautioning that Nigeria risks being poorly represented on the global stage if the situation is not urgently addressed.

“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,” he said.