A former minister of foreign affairs, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, has blamed the shoddy handling of evacuation of Nigerians from Sudan on the interfering busybodies like the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) and the ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management.
Speaking on Arise News yesterday, Akinyemi said the federal government should not blame the Egyptian authorities for what happened at the Egyptian border during the evacuation of Nigerians from Sudan.
Recall that NiDCOM had on May 1 sounded the alarm that the Egyptian authorities refused access to Nigerian evacuees from Sudan.
It said Egypt had insisted on visas from the fleeing Nigerians who were being evacuated by buses to the country’s border before their eventual movement to Nigeria.
Almost immediately, it tweeted that Egypt had rescinded the decision and opened its borders to the Nigerians after President Muhammadu Buhari spoke with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Reacting to the development, Akinyemi said Nigeria said Egypt knows Nigeria’s ministry of foreign affairs, not a commission of department.
He said the North African country does not have any relationship with NiDCOM or the ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management.
“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.
“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,” he said.
With TheCable report
