Ambassadorial Nominees: FG debunks alleged nepotism

The Federal Govern­ment has debunked the allegation of nepotism leveled against President Muhammadu Buhari and Senate Pres­ident Bukola Saraki over the recent ambassadorial nominees.

The government was re­acting against the online publication dated June 20th, 2016 titled “Ambas­sadorial Nominees: 30 Foreign Affairs Directors Allege Nepotism, Petition Buhari, Senate President.”

A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Af­fairs, signed by the minis­try’s spokesperson, Clem­ent Onoja Aduku and made available to The AU­THORITY, described the allegations as “falsehood and misrepresentations”

“We wish to refer to your recent online publication dated June 20th 2016 on the above subject-mat­ter and to inform that the said publication was full of falsehood and misrepre­sentations.”

According to the release, the appointed of ambassa­dors and principal repre­sentatives of Nigeria to oth­er countries of the world is a constitutional prerogative of the president, subject to confirmation by the senate.

“In exercising this power, the president is at liberty to choose whoever he wants to represent him as prin­cipal representative or en­voy abroad. It is therefore, ludicrous and presumptu­ous for the un-named 20 directors and Sahara Re­porters to have questioned the president’s constitu­tional power”, it stated.

The statement contin­ued: “It is on record that Mr. President had forward­ed the list of ambassadori­al nominees to the senate before his departure to the United Kingdom. There­fore, there was no need for the list to be cleared by the Vice President/Acting President in Mr. President’s absence,” it said.