Following the Federal Capital Territory’s threat to close down 34 foreign missions over non-payment of N3.6 billon ground rent debt, some Nigerian diplomats have warned that such closure was capable of sparking diplomatic rows at Nigeria’s Embassies and High Commissions around the world.
FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, last month threatened to revoke 4,794 land ti-tles and shut down embas-sies and other properties owing ground rents since 2014, prompting President Bola Tinubu to grant a 14-day grace period, which expired on Monday, June 9. Weighing on the issue, the National President, Association of Retired Ca-reer Ambassadors of Ni-geria, Amb Joe Keshi, and Head of the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of La-gos, Prof David Awora-wo, said such proposed closure would not only violate extant conventions but can attract reciprocal actions against Nigerian missions.
The duo posited that such action would be a violation of Articles 9, 11 and 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) which established the rules, principles and protocols of the inviolabil-ity and extra-territoriality of diplomatic premises, protection of staff and property. Critically appraising the issues from both angles, Prof Aworawo, stated that “while the missions (sending states) must obey the laws of the re-ceiving states, including payment of ground rents, diplomatic issues are usu-ally handled with subtlety, perceptiveness and not in abrasive and erratic man-ner.”
The Professor of Interna-tional Relations and Stra-tegic Studies, argued that, the “current noisy manner” the case was being handled was “an embarrassment to Nigeria,” expressing sur-prise that President Bola Tinubu has not called the FCT Minister to order.
Keshi, a former Consul-ar-General of Nigeria in Atalanta, Georgia, in the United States, recalled the diplomatic practice. “When things were done normally in Nigeria, this issue should have been left in the hands of the Foreign Affairs Min-istry. The process is that the FCDA should have written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to complain, and the Ministry would have offered its advice. This is because the premises of a diplomatic mission are con-sidered sacred and cannot be violated by agents of the receiving state without the consent of the head of the mission.” According to Keshi, the Foreign Affairs Ministry would have engaged the diplomatic missions.
“The FCDA cannot threat-en to close down or deal with diplomatic missions. It never happens, because it will create a lot of diplo-matic rows, and I‘m sure the Foreign Affairs Minis-try must have advised the FCDA that this is not the best way to go about this; because there are ways the international community deal with such issues all over the world.”
Ambassador Keshi said interestingly, many of Ni-geria’s foreign missions are indebted all over the world, and those countries have never threatened to kick Nigeria out. He sug-gested collaboration among government Ministries, es-pecially on issues affecting diplomatic missions.
He recalled that a couple years ago, when the British Police published the indebtedness of Nigeria’s High Commission and a lot of diplomatic missions in London, for wrong car parking, “The British Police gave them tickets, but they never embarrassed them, by threatening to lock down the High Commis-sions, if they failed to pay the dues. This is because by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Practice and Rules, this is not supposed to happen,” he said.
