In the over two years and six months since President Bola Tinubu came into office, he has continued to surprise not a few Nigerians including some members of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
On Saturday, November 29, 2025, the Presidency released a list of 15 career ambassadors and 17 non-career ambassadors more than two years after the president recalled the last set of diplomats.
The outcome of that lag has been telling especially in the United States, the United Nations, European Union and the United Kingdom, key allies to Nigeria. The escalation of tension between Nigeria and the US has been alluded to the none presence of a top diplomat to engage with officials of other countries at the topmost level.
Two years plus after, the thinking in many quarters was that the Tinubu Presidency will turn up with balance of technocrats, politicians and experienced hands, but the release of the nominees by presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, was received with opprobrium and disdain across the political spectrum.
First to fire the salvo was the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which described the list as populated by those suffering from “integrity deficit.”
The party further asked President Tinubu to renominate only Nigerians with “stellar democratic credentials and high moral standing, capable of commanding global respect for the ambassadorial assignments.”
Prominent non-career nominees include Ogbonnaya Kalu (Abia), a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri (Delta), former INEC Chairman, Mahmud Yakubu; former Ekiti First Lady Erelu Adebayo; and former governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), both long-time allies of FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Others on the list are ex-Katsina Speaker, Tasiu Maigari; former Plateau commissioner, Yakubu Gambo; former senator, Prof. Nora Daduut (Plateau), former Lagos deputy governor, Otunba Femi Pedro; ex-Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode; former Oyo First Lady, Florence Ajimobi; former Lagos commissioner, Lola Akande; former Adamawa senator, Grace Bent; Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (Ondo); and former ambassador to the Vatican, Paul Adikwu (Benue).
This newspaper finds the list noxious and a blatant bad optics. For starters, is the former INEC chairman, Prof. Yakubu, being rewarded for his controversial handling of the 2023 elections and some off-cycle polls like the Edo guber that warrants his being on the list?
It will be imagined that for a man that recently completed his two-term of five years at the helm of the nation’s electoral body, there should have been a thorough audit of his time in office rather than the presidential reward with an ambassadorial nomination.
Also, what message is the Tinubu Presidency sending with the nominations of a character like Reno Omokri, a known rabble rouser and his cousin in verbal diarrhea, Femi Fani-Kayode? That people who have eviscerated the President and have not disowned their telling allegations but latter day converts can be rewarded to represent the country?
Omokri has been divisive, giving labels to regions and politicians like Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election.
The presence of wives of former governors and associates of the president adds to the soured nature of the list. This newspaper does not suggest that they lack the intellectual rigour because they are women, rather what are their track records to warrant such appointments?
It is indicative that President Tinubu is more interested in his second term like many have argued rather than governance. If it were to the contrary, such an important list will not be bloated with people who either lack the experience of having corruption cases against them like the former Governors of Enugu and Abia States, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Okezie Ikpeazu, respectively.
Perhaps, the irony is lost on the Presidency that these would-be diplomats are the lenses by which the rest of the world will see and judge the country.
It is more than about time that President Tinubu puts an end to politicking and concentrates on the core art of governance. Continuing with this prependalism will inexorably stain whatever legacy he seeks to create.
