A political scientist, Dr Kunle Fagbemi, has weighed in on the reason Nigeria is facing hurdles in securing agrément, the formal consent of receiving states, for new diplomats recently nominated by President Bola Tinubu.
While the Senate has screened and passed the ambassador-designates with Tinubu approving the deployment of 3 ambassadorial nominees in January 2026, the ambassador-designates are yet to resume their duties.
Speaking during Arise TV’s Morning Show on Tuesday and monitored by Pan-Atlantic Kompass, Fagbemi said that the official deployment of the ambassador-designates has become complicated due to the lack of formal acceptance of the ambassador-designates by the host nations.
The political scientists revealed that the prolonged absence of full-rank ambassadors is one of the reasons Nigeria has been unable to secure an agrément for new diplomats.
He pointed out that since the mass recall of envoys in September 2023, missions have been led by chargés d’affaires, who often lack the high-level access required for international diplomacy.
According to him, this is against the provisions of the Vienna Convention.
He said: “This is a confirmation of the challenges that we have been facing with the incumbent APC-led administration under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They are operating a very dysfunctional presidency and diplomatic service.
“Like you rightly said, every elementary student of diplomatic practice, or diplomacy, or foreign affairs understands that the Vienna Convention is very explicit on what ought to be.
“Article Three talks about the fact that you should have a mission. Article four talks about the agrément that we’re all making reference to, which automatically means that if you have a mission in any country, you want to maintain the operations of that mission at the highest level possible for correct interface.
“So, when in September 2023 President Tinubu decided to recall all these ambassadors back, if a number of the officials in the ministry of foreign affairs were very conversant with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and some of the protocol instruments there from and thereto, they would have understood that you must make sure that within the maximum of 90 days, you need to have appointed another ambassador, as it were, or appoint a special envoy that will cover the jurisdiction.
“Unfortunately, all of us are very aware of the facts in the public domain. Nothing was done between September 2023, and Q3 of 2025, when we started having a list of the first four names, and then you had another additional list that was sent to the National Assembly.”
Fagbemi also revealed that under Article 4 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, receiving states must grant consent before any ambassador can be accredited.
However, receiving states are not obliged to give reasons to the sending state for a refusal of agrément.
This means countries can reject an ambassador nominee without explanation, including for tenure-related concerns, at the state’s discretion.
According to him, it appears Tinubu failed to explore relationships with foreign countries to secure an agrément for new diplomats.
He continued: “Diplomatic practice and foreign affairs matters are deep statecraft issues. And when you are handling statecraft issues, you understand that the appointment of ambassadors, because you know that article four of the Vienna Convention talks about the agrément, a number of the issues would have been done through the back channels and behind the scene that by the time you are even mentioning a particular name, that name is as good as already adopted, and that all the stakeholders, everybody is going to be working towards achieving that.
“So, we have entered a one-chance bus, as it were, and, unfortunately, these ambassador-designates are going to be on the receiving end of a wrong stick.
“Mindful of the fact that it is clearly understood that you cannot operate a situation where you do not have your embassy properly managed for over 18 months, like we have done 24 months plus and going and you now expect a country to jump at it when you did not send special envoys, when you did not maintain the highest kind of relationship, that is clear that you are holding these other countries in high esteem and regards.”
He added: “We need to understand that it needs a shared vision with the political elite of the Nigerian state, because no country in the world wants to operate with uncertainty. It means that what some of us have always said before is now that the incumbent president needs to reach out to the opposition political parties and build consensus on this matter going forward.
“There is going to be a need for the President to convene a meeting of inter-party and major political stakeholders to understand that on this subject matter of foreign relationships, management, and diplomatic practice.
“We will need to maintain this and then they will now agree that we are going to convince the international community that each of these ambassadors designate that do succeed in getting an agrément will serve a minimum of 24 to 30 months.”
In September 2023, barely four months into his administration, Tinubu concluded a sector-wide reassessment of Nigeria’s foreign policy, which saw career and non-career ambassadors recalled from 109 missions, leaving the missions without substantive heads for over two years.
In November 2025, more than 26 months later, Tinubu forwarded names of ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation.
The first batch of three nominees, including Ayodele Oke, Amin Dalhatu, and Colonel Lateef Are (retd.), was transmitted to the National Assembly on November 26, 2025.
Days later, on November 29, the President submitted an additional 32 names, comprising 17 non-career diplomats and 15 career officers.
Also, on January 22, 2026, the President confirmed the postings of Oke as the ambassador-designate to France, Are as the ambassador-designate to the United States of America, and Dalhatu as the high commissioner-designate to the United Kingdom.
