A former Nigerian Ambassador to Ireland says President Bola Tinubu was not properly advised when he recalled all of the country’s ambassadors in 2023, and that the long vacancy that followed damaged Nigeria’s standing abroad.
Ambassador Ijeoma Chinonyerem Obiezu, who served in Dublin from 2021 to 2023 with concurrent accreditation to Iceland, made the remarks in an interview with PEG Dialogues for the One on One series.
“In my opinion, and I may be right or wrong, I don’t think the President was properly advised and briefed on how diplomacy works,”
she said.
“Sending and recalling ambassadors is the prerogative of the President, no doubt about that. My view is that he was ill advised, or he was not properly informed.”
The Presidency announced the recall of all career and political ambassadors on 2 September 2023, about three months after President Tinubu was sworn in. His spokesman at the time, Ajuri Ngelale, said the President was determined to raise the standard of Nigeria’s service delivery at home and abroad.
The country’s permanent representatives to the United Nations in New York and Geneva were allowed to remain in place ahead of the UN General Assembly.
Replacements took far longer to arrive. The Senate confirmed the President’s ambassadorial nominees in December 2025.
The first postings, to the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Turkey, were announced in January 2026, and 65 more envoys were posted in March.
For most of the period in between, Nigerian missions abroad ran without substantive heads.
Government officials have described the 2026 postings as a response to public pressure. Information Minister Mohammed Idris said there had been “cries, complaints and agitations for ambassadors to be put on their posts,” adding that the President had “fulfilled that.”
Ambassador Obiezu said the vacancy came at a real price.
“The long gap did not serve the country. I must tell you, we lost a great deal, diplomatically and otherwise. Our image in the international arena suffered badly because we had no ambassadors.”
Rank, she explained, matters in the way diplomacy is practised.
“It takes an ambassador to open certain doors, to talk, to negotiate and to dialogue,”
she said.
“A foreign service officer without that rank cannot walk into a minister’s office in another country. You keep writing letters, and they reply when it pleases them.”
The recall also hit career diplomats hard, she noted. Many of them reach ambassadorial rank only two or three years before retirement and see the posting as the peak of a long career.
“Calling them back before they finished their tour hurt everybody,” she said.
Asked whether diplomats or online content creators now shape how the world sees Nigeria, Ambassador Obiezu said technology has not replaced formal diplomacy. She spoke warmly of the Nigerian community in Ireland, where Nigerians sit on county councils and hold senior roles in health, technology and government.
“Every Nigerian living abroad represents the country,” she said. “Diplomacy is everybody’s business.”
The full interview, including her plans ahead of the 2027 general elections, is available on PEG Dialogues and in the One on One series on PEG Pulse.
