Reps pledge support to boost Nigeria’s image abroad

The House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs has promised to support the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to boost Nigeria’s image abroad.

The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Yakub Buba (APC-Adamawa) made the pledge at an oversight function to the ministry headquarters on Tuesday, in Abuja.

”I want to assure you that we will do justice to whatever we are supposed to do justice to; the budget of this ministry is very poor.

“After my encounter with the Accountant General of the Federal at the retreat, I was expecting the envelope to be bigger unfortunately it shrunk the further.

“As a committee, we are not happy with what we have seen during our oversight to some of the missions, we are not happy with what we saw in the ministry the last time we came.

“I want to call on my honourable colleagues to think inside and outside the box to see how we can do something to salvage the situation.

“Let us see how our image all over the world can be better than what it is today,” he said.

Buba that said that the committee would only inspect the ministry, take note and reserve all questions for Friday, Nov. 5, when the ministry would appear for budget defence.

He said that the decision to reserve the question was in honour of the late father of Sen. Philip Aduda and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Gabriel Aduda who will be laid to rest on Thursday.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb. Zubairu Dada, said that the ministry was lucky to have a committee with genuine interest in its affairs.

He said that the management was willing to answer any question put forward by the committee on the operations of the ministry.

“Be rest assured Mr Chairman that whatever answers we give you will be very genuine and will be from the bottom of our hearts and nothing but the truth.

“Regard us as your children and partners in the service of Nigeria; it is in that spirit that we welcome whole heartedly and assure you of our resolve to partner and to collaborate with you,” he said.

Dada called for the collaboration of the committee hoping that the committee’s understanding of the workings of the ministry, reflected in its budgetary allocation.

The minister said that the ministry could do much more but the major challenge of the ministry was funding.

He said that the value of naira had gone down which affected the value of the envelope given to the ministry.

Dada called for a reconsideration of the ministry’s budget saying that the institution was the eye of Nigeria to the world and more needed to be done to project Nigeria’s image.

The minister acknowledged that some of the complaints of poor service delivery by Nigerians in diaspora were as a result of poor funding.

He said though a few Nigerians did not appreciate whatever government did, saying that the ministry was doing its best within the available resources.

The minister, who accepted that there could be some lapses on the part of some members of staff, said that the ministry was working on such offices.

Speaking with newsmen after the inspection, Buba said that the committee was impressed with what they had seen.

He said that there were questions to be asked which would be reserved for Friday when the ministry appeared for budget defence.

The lawmaker said that the budgetary allocation for the ministry was grossly inadequate, pledging to work with other stakeholders to raise the budget.