Onyeama: We Lack 21st Century Communication Gadgets in our Missions

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyema, has revealed
that Nigeria’s missions around the world lacked 21st century
infrastructure, especially information and communication technology
(ICT).

Onyeama gave the hint yesterday when he appeared before the
House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

He stated: “A foreign ministry really has to function in a
global community of the 21st century and this requires certain
architecture, especially ICT. When you are operating a hundred
offices around the world, communication becomes absolutely key –
real time communication – when you are also dealing with sensitive
information, the capacity to also maintain that confidentiality.
And in all honesty, the infrastructure that is in place is
certainly not 21st Century infrastructure.

“In the ministry, we don’t have direct linkage with our
embassies around the world and even the most basic technology that
will provide that is not even there. Even if we look at just within
the ministry, the intranet system for communication has also become
a real challenge.”

He urged the committee to address the challenge of poor funding
for the ministry and decried the delay in the remittances to the
country’s missions, adding that the minsitry is collaborating with
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Ministry of Finance to
find a solution to this perennial problem.

Onyema noted that some of the country’s missions were finding it
extremely difficult to operate optimally due to late arrival of
fund.
The minister told theommittee that the federal government could not
implement the closure of some of its embassies and missions around
the world in order to save cost because the cost of doing so would
be absolutely prohibitive.

He said: “It is almost cheaper to keep them operating at a
certain level. We have managed to close two or three but we can’t
even afford to close a mission because as you are laying off the
staff and the local staff, their entitlements and so many other
costs are really prohibitive.

He explained that it does not speak well of the ambition of the
country for Nigeria to be closing its missions.