Professor Tunde Adeniran

Nigeria Appoints US Ambassador After Over Seven Months of Inaction

Oluwaseyi Oduyela/Washington, DC

The federal Government of Nigeria under the Leadership of President Umar Yar’Adua has appointed an Ambassador to the United States after over seven months of diplomatic inaction in the United States.

According to authoritative sources, Professor Tunde Adeniran, former Minister of Education under ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo is the new Ambassador of Nigeria to the United States. A reliable source disclosed that, the new Ambassador resumes duty 1^st week of September 2009.

It will be recalled that the last Ambassador, Brig Gen Oluwole Rotimi was removed after a row he had with Mr. Ojo Maduekwe, the Foreign Affairs Minister over the former’s inability to secure inauguration seats for the latter. It was gathered that a news report exposing the gate crashing of President Barack Obama’s inauguration by Mr. Maduekwe was the final nail in the coffin precipitating the removal of Oluwole Rotimi.

Mr. Maduekwe had deceptively and ill-advisedly brought 2 “official” delegations including his wife, a retinue of aides and a host of media and camera men to the January 2009 Inauguration of President Barack Obama, when in actual fact neither he nor any outside government was invited.

Diplomatic analysts wondered why it had to take Nigeria seven months to replace its Ambassador to the most important country in the world. According to an analyst, it shows the ineptitude in the Yar’Adua-led government and highlights what is being referred to as the “Area Boy” Diplomatic Style.

Essentially Nigeria has been without a credentialed ambassador for the entire length of President Obama’s presidency – a critical stage, experts say, especial when transiting from Republican to Democratic party.

The major events during this timeframe for which the highest level representation was lacking include the visit of President Obama to Africa in July, the visit of Secretary of State Clinton in August, the American Independence which all ambassadors are invited, the Spring World Bank meetings to address the global economic melt-down etc. indeed it is believed that the recall of the ambassador days into the new administration of Obama cast Nigeria as unserious and may have been a factor in selecting Ghana for a visit as there was no high-powered envoy to lobby for Nigeria.

There had been initial speculation that the government of Nigeria would move swiftly to bring in an ambassador already in station and approved by the senate to fill in the gap. Prof Hagher, the High Commissioner of Nigeria to Canada had previously served in North America (Mexico) and so could have covered Washington as Ambassador ad interim to fill the vacuum. Similarly Prof Joy Ugwu, Permanent Representative to the UN in NY had been minister of foreign previously and therefore an equally high-powered candidate to fill in the Washington position. However tribal politics of zoning to the Southwest eliminated both diplomats who were from the middlebelt and southeast respectively.

Indeed some had felt Ogwu, who was willing to assume the position, should get it to assuage the feelings of Igbos over General Olurotimi’s undiplomatic remarks. Others had said Hagher would be a neutral third party to calm nerves all round. It was gathered though that the minister of Foreign affairs, Maduwekwe loved to junket to the US at any opportunity so he preferred not to have any ambassador in place so he could enjoy unencumbered access for as long as possible.

Observers have raised questions on the diplomatic credentials of Professor Tunde Adeniran. According to sources, Yar’adua’s selection of his predecessor was a spectacular failure as a retired civil war general whose last public engagement was in the 1970s had no temperament for diplomacy and no place in 21^st century diplomacy or current affairs.

Professor Adeniran was unceremoniously removed from Mr. Obasanjo’s cabinet in 2001 following his poor performance in office as the Minister of Education. Adeniran had presided over the failed Universal Basic Education (UBE) program, launched by Obasanjo at the beginning of his government. The UBE lost Billions of Naira due to Professor Adeniran’s ineffectiveness. An Education correspondent in Nigeria wondered how Adeniran who failed to manage an education Ministry will be able to manage Nigeria’s image in the United States. Under his watch as the Education Minister, workers had to sleep in office because of inadequate accommodation.

It is yet to be seen what Ambassador Adeniran brings to the table in Washington but knowledgeable sources say temperamentally he is a more decent fellow than his predecessor of the “ragtag Biafran army” infamy. Hopefully he will be less scandal-prone than the verbose pro-Abacha former ambassador Prof Obiozor whose controversial sale of 4 embassy properties has kicked up a firestorm of allegations of impropriety over millions of dollars generated therefrom.

The decision to bring Adeniran finally at this time is believed linked to the impending UN General Assembly later this month. It is not known if Yar’adua will make it this year as he was represented last year by Maduekwe due to his ill health. After all the negative blows Nigeria has received diplomatically from the US, the administration may have though it wise to bring in an ambassador to mitigate further damage.

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