Shehu Sani: Diplomatic staff defrauding Nigeria over rent for embassies

Shehu Sani, former senator representing Kaduna central, says it is not sustainable for the federal government to keep paying rent for embassies. 

According to NAN, Sani said he observed Nigeria has been renting about 60 percent of its embassies abroad.

He spoke in reaction to complaints about dilapidated state of Nigerian embassies and its economic consequences to the country.

Sani, former deputy chairman of the senate committee on foreign affairs in the eighth senate, claimed that diplomatic staff have been swindling the federal government in the name of paying rent for embassies.

He advised the federal government to set a target of buying 10 buildings in a year to serve as embassies in various countries.

“I found out that we have been renting about 60 per cent of Nigerian embassies abroad, some existed far back as 1960 and we are still unable to buy a house in those countries,” Sani said.

“From my observation, diplomatic staffs have been fleecing this country in the name of paying rents; they prefer Nigeria to keep renting houses, rather than buying a building as an embassy.

“In the past, everything about embassy is in the Foreign Affairs ministry, but during the era of Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ambassadors go to the Minister of Finance for them to be funded.

“As such it left the foreign affairs ministry with little or no choice on the embassy other than posting of diplomatic staffs.

“Everything about embassy should go back to the foreign affairs ministry; we should have targets, every year we should buy 10 buildings, so that in five to six years, we are no more renting.

“There are some buildings that we may not need; we have to trade them off and put those ones away.

“I learnt we have a residence for Nigeria’s permanent representatives in New York and that residence has not been used for decades.

“If that residence has not been used for decades, we have no reason to keep that building, we need to sell it off, use the proceeds and buy other properties in other countries.”