The Senate had last week suspended the confirmation of the list of 47 ambassadorial nominees forwarded by Pres. Buhari, because it lacked the Federal character principle.
While speaking over the weekend, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, however said: “Specific criteria had been set by the Presidency to pick nominees and the four states without nominees have no career diplomats in the Foreign Service who met the objective.
One thing is clear, the Constitution makes it clear that it is the prerogative of the President to nominate Ambassadors and the criteria he will use to do so is also his constitutional right. Whatever criteria he chooses to use is constitutional.
While the constitution preaches federal character, it does not say that every state must be represented in every appointment, except in the case of ministers. So the spirit of the constitution has been fully satisfied by having 32 ambassadors out of 36 plus one (FCT). I believe that every objective analyst will agree with this.”…. even if s/he is 4rm d other side….