Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Foreign Affairs and Protocol, Ademola Oshodi, has described the ambassadorial nominees as the best for Tinubu’s administration.

Oshodi faulted the criticism against names on the list, maintaining that the President had the right to appoint whoever he felt could work with him to move the country forward.

“This is the best the President has seen for the interests of his administration and for Nigeria. I can tell you that whether you accept it or anybody else accepts it, it is his discretion.

“And we’ll see at the end of the day how much they achieve their goal. And that’s what the ultimate goal is entirely,” he said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday.

“We voted for a president. We gave him the prerogative to choose his people. This is the best for his administration to make sure his administration succeeds, whether for economic, security, or for just even just cultural needs,” he added.

Oshodi said it was normal practice for leaders to pick people they can work with as envoys.

The aide said that what was important was that none of the nominees had been convicted of any crime.

He also urged Nigerians not to damage the character of people who had not been convicted by a court.

Ambassador-Nominees

Tinubu had last Saturday released a list of 32 persons nominated to serve as ambassadors in Nigeria’s foreign missions.

They included a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu; former governors of Enugu and Abia states, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Okezie Ikpeazu; a former minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, and a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri.

The President had earlier sent the names of Oke, Amin Dalhatu, and Colonel Lateef Are (retd.) to the Senate for confirmation.

The lists attracted mixed reactions from Nigeria.

Nigeria’s opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), questioned the inclusion of a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, on the list.

In a statement by its spokesman, Ini Ememobong, the PDP described the list of 32 ambassadorial nominees as scandalous and demanded a withdrawal.

Meanwhile, the ADC said the list appeared designed to settle Tinubu’s political indebtedness, rather than fix Nigeria’s urgent international relations crises.

“After waiting for more than two years, and with Nigeria’s diplomacy and global perception in historic tatters, President Bola Tinubu presents an outrageously underwhelming ambassadorial list that appears designed to settle his political IOUs rather than fix Nigeria’s urgent international relations crises,” its spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, said in a statement on Sunday. (CHANNELS)