Several staff of the Nigerian foreign missions are now facing crisis following the delay in the release of their capital and overhead votes by the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government, SaharaReporters has learnt.
Some of the staff told SaharaReporters that they now seek help from friends and families in Nigeria for feeding as the embassies are presently faced with cash crunch.
SaharaReporters learnt that Nigerian embassy staff, in London, the United Kingdom for example, have resorted to work shifts as the embassy could no longer support full operations.
Sources told SaharaReporters that the Nigerian embassies had not received allocations in the past six months, adding that allocations usually come twice in a year.
In September 2023, the matter was first brought to the limelight after media report that Nigerian foreign missions did not their capital and overhead votes from the Federal Government.
According to the report, the overhead vote for the second half of 2023 which should have been paid since June 2023 was still pending, putting the missions in a dire strait.
The diplomats and Foreign Service officers at the 109 Diplomatic Missions, which include 97 Embassies and 12 Consulates all over the world, were reported to be worried about the implication of the cash crunch on the operation of the missions and staff well-being.
Since that time, many of the missions were not able to meet their financial obligations to their staff members and local contractors.
They could also not meet various financial obligations, including electricity, water, and sanitation bills, were already piling up.
Worried embassy staff members serving in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world had sent distress messages to their colleagues at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
Meanwhile, a source from one of the Nigerian embassies who spoke to SaharaReporters on Monday evening, decried that the situation had not improved since last year as allocations to embassies around the world had not been paid since June 2023.
According to the source, “in the last six months, Nigerian embassies have not received their allocations which come twice a year.
“Unfortunately, embassy staff are now indebted; we cannot feed, we cannot pay our children’s school fees; some are reaching out to friends and family in Nigeria to help with money, and in some embassies like London, staff are taking turns to come work in shifts as the embassies can no longer support full operations.”
“To show you how dire the situation is”, the source said, “Some of the embassies cannot fuel official cars,” adding that checks with consulate in New York, embassies like Brussels, among others had confirmed the ugly situation in their jurisdiction.
SaharaReporters’ efforts to contact the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb Yusuf Tuggar, on the matter were unsuccessful as he did not pick his calls.
Attempts to speak with his Special Adviser on Media and Communications Strategy, Alkasim Abdulkadir, were not also successful as he could not be reached on telephone as of the time of filing this report.
