Buhari orders review of Nigeria’s foreign missions

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review the size and number of Nigeria’s foreign missions abroad.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Paul Bulus Lolo, while speaking to journalists after making a presentation to President Buhari on the ministry’s activities, said that Nigeria needs to review the number of its present 119 missions abroad based on the country’s capacity, especially as the economy is looking down.
“We also talked about the state of our embassies abroad,” he said. “All of these in the context of what Nigeria aspires to be at home, in the sub-region, in the continent and across the globe. Mr. President asked the ministry to be realistic in terms of our representation abroad. We have 119 missions. He asked the questions whether we need to have that number or we rationalized based on our capacity.
Right now, the economy is looking down. We are trying to revive and revamp. It is a matter of time. The specific directive that he has given is that a committee be formed to look at the whole issue of our representation abroad, the size and the number of missions, on whether or not the number should remain the same or we do something about those numbers.”