Envoy advises Buhari to trim ambassadorial appointments

The Honorary Consul of Malta in Nigeria, Mr Oluwole Lawal, on Monday advised President Muhammadu Buhari to reduce ambassadorial appointments and appoint honorary consuls to countries.
Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, Lawal said that appointing honorary consuls would reduce the huge cost of establishing foreign missions.
The envoy said the government needed to take advantage of consuls, whose services were ‘’pro-bono,’’ especially now that the government wanted to cut cost of governance.
“President Buhari should try to reduce the number of ambassadors being sent to other countries and engage honorary consuls as being done by the UK, U.S. and Asian countries.
“This way, the government will reduce the cost of opening new missions abroad as well as the cost of maintaining these missions.’’
Lawal, who is also the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Association of Consuls, said that Nigeria’s use of consuls would make the country to have more diplomatic representation across the globe.
He said it was imperative for the Buhari administration to take advantage of the 1963 UN Convention on Consular Relations.
Lawal said that honorary consuls would fulfill their duties and obligations as laid down in the convention “honestly, responsibly, fairly, justly and equitably.
“Apart from cutting cost and budget for missions abroad, we have come to realise that honorary consuls perform better than full-fledged ambassadors.’’
The consul expressed his optimism that Nigeria’s use of honorary consuls would stimulate trade and investment cooperation with other countries.
He also said that using consuls also enhance people-to-people interaction, without having to go through official protocols that foreign missions were known for.