Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rt. Hon.( Dr.) Yusuf Buba, has expressed happiness over the 2022 Appropriations Act that empowers Nigerian ambassadors in the missions abroad to spend funds appropriated as capital expenditure without seeking the approval of the ministry headquarters in Abuja.
He noted that the powers granted the foreign missions in the Act, recently signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, will, among others, ensure that bureaucratic bottlenecks that impede development at the missions are removed.
The lawmaker added that the new reform would make for quality progress in the activities of the nation’s foreign service.
Buba stated this, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Nkem Anyata-Lafia and made available to SINL Nigeria Online, on Saturday in Abuja.
The lawmaker, who said that monies the National Assembly, usually appropriates directly for the nation’s missions abroad as capital expenditure are meant for use for the procurement of official vehicles, buying and renovation of embassy buildings, effecting repairs on dilapidated or decayed infrastructure as well as carrying out other projects captured under the capital component in the fiscal documents of each year; decried a situation where such projects are not, usually, undertaken for far too long as a result of the delay in approval from Nigeria.
“The National Assembly appropriates monies directly to the foreign missions, but before they spend the capital component of these monies, they have to come back to Nigeria to get approval.
“And most of the times, there is too much delay.
“Sometimes, you would see embassies, those that have money in their capital accounts, for two years, three years, they can’t utilise such funds because of these delays.
“So, the new Act has graciously given embassies powers to spend their Capital expenditure without seeking approval from headquarters,” he said.
According to him, that makes it easier for them.
“If for instance, there is a storm and the roof of the embassy building is blown off, before now, the ambassador would have to wait for approval from Nigeria before he could repair that roof.
“But with these powers given by the National Assembly in the 2022 Appropriations Act, the ambassador can make approvals for the repair of that building without waiting for two weeks, one year, two years for approval before he can do that,” Buba explained.
The legislator, representing Gombi/Hong Federal Constituency of Adamawa State, said as part of efforts geared towards addressing the challenges, the Committee on Foreign Affairs met at the Foreign Affairs Ministry when its members were appointed about two years ago and most of the rots identified in the system had been cleared.
Citing example, he said that the semester system for cash-backing appropriated funds at the nation’s foreign missions was also adopted as part of the many reforms of the present government.
He said all of these were carefully aimed at repositioning the ministry and the foreign missions in line with global best practices and the foreign policy of the Buhari Administration.
Buba informed that as part of the effort to reposition the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs ( NIIA) for greater relevance in the service of the country in the years ahead, he had personally sponsored a Bill, which has reached an advance stage towards becoming a piece of legislation at the National Assembly.
“The NIIA will be upgraded to not only broaden the current scope of its operations, but to also award academic certificates in the specialised areas of Diplomacy, Democracy and Foreign Affairs in general,” he said.
He said the committee, in conjunction with the leadership of the House, has waded into the diplomatic row between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates ( UAE), the recurring maltreatment of Nigerians living in Ghana, including the infamous incursion into the premises of the Nigeria High Commission in Accra, Ghana, by a private Ghanaian company early last year, the xenophobic attacks in South Africa as well as the smear campaign carried out against a former Nigerian Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, retd, by a member of the the British Parliament.
“These have all become a big plus that has signposted the degree of performance of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Gbajamiala-led 9th House of Representatives in the immediate past year,” he said.
