Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Friday, faulted the nomination of the immediate past Service Chiefs for appointment as non-career Ambassadors.
President Muhammadu Buhari had, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, announced General Abayomi Olonisakin (Rtd), Lt. General Tukur Buratai (Rtd), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (Rtd), and Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Usman (Rtd), as envoys.
However, Frank, in a statement in Abuja, said Buhari’s action was tantamount to rewarding incompetence at the expense of the nation’s global image and perception.
He added that “their nominations as envoys by Buhari is meant to dress them in diplomatic immunity in order to shield them from investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) already probing the varied atrocities and crimes against humanity, the ex-Service Chiefs may have individually or collectively perpetrated while in office.”
The Bayelsa-born political activist noted that “the #LekkiMassacre during the #EndSARSs protests, where scores of innocent Nigerian youths who were protesting peacefully against police brutality were shot and killed by soldiers, is of recent memory.”
He appealed to the Senate, “to put national interest and pride first by rejecting the nominees.”
He also called on “members of the international community, particularly the countries where the ex-Service Chiefs may be posted to as envoys to reject them.”
Frank also vowed to mobilise Nigerians in the diaspora to stage protests in countries of their primary assignment should the ex-Service Chiefs ever be posted as diplomats by Buhari.
According to him: “The nomination of these ex-Service Chiefs to represent Nigeria in foreign countries is an international embarrassment and a new low for the country’s image.
“The world has gone past the era where incompetent…
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