TheCable

Bolaji Akinyemi, former minister of foreign affairs, says the federal government must empower the ministry to avoid repeating the diplomatic issues that happened at the Egyptian border during the evacuation of Nigerians from Sudan.

On May 1, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) said the Egyptian authorities were refusing access to Nigerian evacuees from the civil unrest in Sudan.

The commission added that Egyptian authorities were insisting on visas from the fleeing Nigerians who were being evacuated by buses to the country’s border before their eventual movement to Nigeria.

Shortly after, NiDCOM announced that the North African country had made a U-turn and opened its borders to the Nigerians after President Muhammadu Buhari spoke with Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Egyptian president.

Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house of representatives, said the green chamber would look into the immediate circumstances that led to the hard “diplomatic stance” of the Egyptian authorities.

Reacting to the string of events in an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Akinyemi said Nigeria should not blame Egypt “for our own dysfunctionality”.

He faulted the arrangement of the Nigerian government in the evacuation process adding that “it does not make sense”.

“I’m not happy about the dysfunctionality of the arrangements in Nigeria. Egypt knows only one institution of diplomacy when dealing with Nigeria and that is ministry of foreign affairs,” Akinyemi said.

“That is why we opened an embassy there. So that those that we entrust with those functions would also know the rules on the ground.

“But then, we bring in the NiDCOM and ministry of humanitarian affairs — bodies that Egypt might not have had any relationship with. They now start influencing what will happen in Egypt. It does not make sense.

“Don’t let us blame Egypt for our own dysfunctionality. Empower the ministry of foreign affairs to do its job.

“Then, we can complain if they are derelict in doing that job or not doing it effectively. Interposing the diaspora commission in the foreign field is only going to lead to the kind of problem that we saw.”