Opinion
Why Nigeria’s Next Foreign Minister Should Ba a Career Diplomat
By Raphael Oni
The next war Nigeria fights will not be on land or sea. It will be fought in silent conference rooms in Geneva, Addis Ababa, and New York and other international organisations where a misplaced word costs more than a battalion, and where respect is not inherited, but negotiated.
Every great nation is remembered for two things: the wars it won, and the peace it brokered.
We do not send our most loyal politician. We send our most prepared diplomat. The question before us today is not about rewarding service. It is about protecting Nigeria’s seat at the table.
With the recent resignation of Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar as Minister of Foreign Affairs, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu again has the opportunity to reset, before the end of his first term in office, the button of his administration’s performance in the area of foreign policy.
This is against the backdrop of the administration’s not too impressive outing, so far, in that direction what with the Sahel imbroglio that led to the ‘downsizing’ of the regional economic block, ECOWAS; the threat of kinetic intervention in neighboring Niger; the delayed appointment and deployment of principal envoys; the rejection of some principal envoys, thereto by receiving states, etc!
To enhance the administration’s chances of a sterling outing on the foreign policy turf, Mr. President should exert himself and avoid appointing a ‘pure bred’ politician to the position of Foreign Minister. The preferred choice should be a career diplomat.
This is to say that the president should bring to bear on the selection of the next foreign ministry’s leadership the wisdom that informed his decision in the selection and appointment of the current minister of defense.
What is more, both Foreign Affairs and Defence have something in common – both are on the exclusive list of the country’s constitution.
Under the watch of the very recent leadership at Tafawa Balewa House, our foreign policy lacked the sharp, focused and technical precision required to promote and defend Nigeria’s interests in the emerging global reality. We observed rhetoric without strategy; attendance at summits without follow-up, etc.
Diplomacy is not merely a photo opportunity at bilateral and multilateral diplomatic meetings; it is the unglamorous, grinding and relentless work of diplomatic maneuvers before, during and, at times, after negotiations (bilateral and multilateral), economic attaché coordination, and consular crisis management.
It is my considered opinion that the Tinubu administration has not been an “A student” in this discipline.
The Villa must understand a hard truth: You cannot parachute a novice in diplomacy into the trenches of the diplomatic battles of Lake Chad Basin negotiations or indeed any other diplomatic interface or the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) mediation rooms and expect a sterling performance.
Let me be clear on one thing, though; my intervention is not so much as a critic, but as a ranking diplomatic correspondent who has devoted over fifteen years covering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
There is palpable amateurism in our diplomatic corps that begins at the top. When the Ministry’s executive does not understand the difference between reciprocity and unilateral concession, the entire foreign policy architecture suffers.
Career officers—those who spent 30 years being groomed from Desk Officer to Director are compelled by the contemporary circumstances in the ministry to babysit rather than execute. Morale collapses. Expertise walks out the door.
History is evidential and we have seen this movie before. The few times that the Villa appointed a career Foreign Service Officer (FSO) to head the ministry, Nigeria’s global standing soared.
We punched above our weight because we had, during those periods, Captains who knew the ship they were sailing and understood the waters they were sailing in.
The tours of duty at the ministerial level by the following retired career diplomats lends credence to my submission:
⁃ Ambassador Ignatius Olisemeka(1998–1999)
⁃ Ambassador Olu Adeniji(2003-2006); and
⁃ Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru(2011 to 2013).
When an under performing politician holds the portfolio, we send a signal to diplomatic capitals across the globe that we do not take foreign policy seriously. They exploit that weakness, to our detriment, immediately.
The standard of Nigeria’s diplomacy has fallen compared with some countries in Africa – that is unacceptable for the “Giant of Africa.” What with Nigeria becoming a Partner country in BRICS (2025) where South Africa, a regional rival is a full-fledged and pioneer member or Ghana stealing the winds from Nigeria’s sails in sponsoring a landmark resolution in the UN recognizing the Transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and setting the stage for reparations, a campaign initiated decades ago by the late Chief MKO Abiola ever before he ventured into politics!
President Tinubu does not need a loyalist to obtain winning votes at the African Union. He requires a strategist. He needs a technocrat who knows the ropes of diplomatic interface. He needs someone who understands that a visa rejection rate is a diplomatic tool, not an administrative error.
The next Foreign Minister must, therefore , be a card-carrying member of the old school: someone who has served in a hardship post, being in numerous diplomatic trenches across the globe, understand, appreciate and can leverage on the institutional memory of Tafawa Balewa House, etc. Such individuals exist in the rank of retired career diplomats.
Hire a professional. Raise the standard of Nigeria’s diplomatic engagement in the subregion, region and across the globe! Bring Nigeria back to the top of the diplomatic class. The resignation of Tuggar is the administration’s final grace period.
In another vein, but also critical for our diplomatic outings, is the appointment of career diplomats as ambassadors or principal envoys to our diplomatic posts abroad!
The Foreign Service Regulations(FSR) the Bible of the Country’s foreign service stipulates and, therefore, enjoins in Regulation 4, that Mr President give priority to career diplomats and to appoint a minimum of 75% of them in the ambassadorial appointment exercise.
This has, increasingly, been practiced in the breach in the recent past leading to the erosion of morale in the body of the country’s career diplomats.
Mr. President will do well to restore the letter and the spirit of this Regulation as captured in the country’s Foreign Service Regulations and as quoted above.
In conclusion allow me to say in an era defined by climate shocks, digital fragmentation, and shifting global power blocs, Nigeria cannot afford on-the-job training at the helm of its foreign policy.
Going by what the Canadian Prime Minister put forward in this era, Nigeria cannot be a spectation while others move ahead. Mark Carney’s vision of Variable Geometry Diplomacy—the ability to move at different speeds with different partners depending on the issue—is not an abstract theory; it is a survival manual for the Global South.
To execute such agile, interest-driven strategy, President Tinubu must look beyond political appointees and loyalists.
What is required at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not a generalist politician, but a seasoned career diplomat—someone who has spent decades navigating the quiet corridors of the UN, ECOWAS, and the African Union; someone who understands that influence is not declared but negotiated, and that alliances shift like sand.
Appointing a technocratic diplomat would signal that Nigeria is serious about shedding the weight of bureaucratic inertia and embracing a fluid, results-driven foreign policy.
The world is moving at variable speeds. Nigeria must either choose a pilot who knows and can navigate the wind systems of international diplomacy, or risk being left at the station—still debating protocol while others rewrite the rules of global engagement.
