…As Onyeama receives Foreign Service Manual

From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has received the Foreign Service Manual in Abuja.

In his remarks, Onyeama expressed the profound gratitude of the entire Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the committee comprising of retired diplomats and its support staff for accepting at a very short notice to embark on the very important assignment.

“We thank you very much indeed. Of course, we will look at it entirely before sending it for publication and if there are other inputs that we might feel necessary, then we will also have the opportunity to make that just to complete the excellent work that you have done,” Onyeama said.

Onyeama further said the career of diplomats was a multifaceted one that the diplomat was expected to be a master of so many different areas.

“It is a career that really calls for the very, very best. And that is why it is considered as such, an elite profession.

“So, I think that this manual is very timely, coming also in the context of the Change Agenda of Mr President and the new vision that we have for Nigerians and for diplomats as the face of Nigeria.

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“It is absolutely important, very timely and I think it is appropriate that it addresses so many different facets of the diplomat,” Onyeama added.

The committee put in place to spearhead the composition of the manual which was inaugurated on October 27, 2017, had Edward Aina as chairman, with Ambassadors Suleiman Dahiru, Peter Emozie, Baba Garba, Marius Offor and others as members.

The committee was tasked by Onyema to translate into reality, the vision of the Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Olukunle Bamgbose, by preparing a Foreign Service Manual for the ministry.

The committee was given December 17, 2017, as deadline to deliver the document.

Speaking earlier during the presentation of the Foreign Service Manual to the minister, Aina said upon inauguration, the committee immediately swung into action to make the document a reality.

He noted that the committee’s appeal to Nigeria’s diplomatic outpost for information attracted only a response on India.

Aina said notwithstanding, the committee was proud of the maiden edition of the Nigerian Foreign Service Manual which will benefit serving and future Nigerian Foreign Service Officers and Staff at home and abroad.

“In approaching the subject and to capture the essential professional aspects of the permanent secretary’s concept paper, the committee agreed on the following definition of manual: comprehensive, step-by-step guide to a particular topic for beginners and practitioners that also serves as a reference book.