Nig‎erian embassies a national disgrace – Minister

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, on Monday described Nigerian embassies as a national embarrassment.
Onyema, who appeared before the Joint National Assembly ‎Committee on Appropriation to defend the N14.6 billion virement request by his ministry, which was part of a N180 billion virement proposal, added that the situation of Nigerian embassies is tragic.
He appealed to the committee to approve the virement so that Nigerian embassies can be rescued from shame and reproach.
He said: “Most of you should be aware because you have visited some of the embassies. The situation is a national embarrassment. The situation is bad, it is horrible and should be addressed. School fees are not paid. In some cases electric bills are not paid. It is actually a national embarrassment.”
Onyema added that some of the workers were not able to pay school fees of their children.
‎Coroborating the submission of the Minister, a member of the committee revealed that when he travelled to France recently, he was informed that the local staff were yet collect salaries for eight months.
When the Committee asked the Minister whether the requested virement will solve the problem of the Foreign Mission‎s, Onyema said the fund would go a long way in addressing the problems of the embassies.
The Minister demanded that the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be denominated in dollar to prevent the issue of fluctuation of the Naira.
However, the Budget and National Office kicked against the request on the ground that the denomination of the budget in dollar would create problem for the budgeting process.‎