A Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies at the Modibbo Adama University, Yola, Adamawa State, Chris Kwaja, has said that for Nigeria to be an important actor diplomatically, it must have ambassadors.
Prof Kwaja stated this on Tuesday, while responding to questions in an interview on Arise Television.
According to him, without the ambassadors, Nigeria is shut out of conversations in the international community.
He said, “It has huge implications for a country like Nigeria diplomatically. For you to be an important actor in the international system, you must have functional missions. You must have ambassadors that are representatives of the president of this country.
“Right now, we don’t have at the level of the United Nations, we don’t have a permanent representative at the level of the United Nations, we don’t have ambassadors in what they call Grade A countries, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and all that. You don’t have that.”
“It means you are totally shut out of the conversation when it comes to discussions around trade, security or military and other issues that should border on Nigeria.
“And that is why Nigeria is not saying anything when it comes to the whole issue we see around Russia, the US and other countries,” he lamented.
