By Odo Ijere.

The note verbale leaked message between the Qatari Foreign Mission in Nigeria and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is both very clear and apt message of rejection. The international community are using all manner of diplomatese to express their reservations over presidential tourism from Nigeria. What you perhaps do not know is that presidential visits is always a big deal and puts enormous diplomatic pressure on host nations. But why are Nigerians especially personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs always too fixated about foreign visits in the midst of economic uncertainty in their own country? But of course Qatar has mustered the will to snub them by some subtle explanations.

Or how else do you define a snub when your host nation starts to redirect your mission on what programs in your list that may be accommodated during your trip. What else do you call embarrassment when your host tells you he’s busy with other state matters and couldn’t accomodate some items during your visit. But the guys in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are shamelessly looking for explanations to justify the snub instead of staying in their country to fix their horribly battered economy.

Why is Tinubu globetrotting like his failed predecessor, Buhari instead of focusing on fixing hunger in the land? We were informed during Buhari’s presidency that some of his state visits were canceled while he was still on air negotiating a landing passage for his presidential jet. Tinubu and his handlers want to take us through the same voyage of golgotha after deceiving us that he had the midas touch to make Nigeria great again.

Howbeit, Tinubu is giving us no new pills than the same ampicilin ointment of yesteryear used by Buhari where Buhari spent 8years in the Presidential Villa daily asking which other country to be visited for sightseeing. I think I do agree with Professor Soyinka when he said that there’s something criminally wrong with this country Nigeria.

The only job of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today is making a shortlist of countries to be visited by the President for tourism and sightseeing clothed in investment parley or conferences. That way, they too will make their own fast money estacode and further put pressure on our scarce foreign exchange. After all the average presidential foreign trip delegation gulps a minimum of $5 million USD in most conservative estimates. It is this money, most of which pass through the Ministry that motivate most of the presidential foreign trips. You can’t stop the gluttonous civil servants from milking the treasury.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the President are busy scamming us of our scarce dollar resources but want Nigerians to endure economic downturn. The President and his handlers should stop this mockery on our sensibilities. His incessant travels is a drain on our foreign exchange purse. He should stop this pretense and brace up to tackle our economic woes or he do the needful by surrendering the office of the President. This nation is on a precipice of economic doldrums. What we smell everywhere now are chaos and anarchy. The smallest tinderbox will detonate the atomic bomb of crises that will envelop the entire nation.

The scamming scripts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which formats on programming the President for foreign trips should be put in abeyance if patriotism is still the watchword. The presidential foreign trips must be curtailed to save our depleted foreign exchange economy. President Tinubu must be prepared to lead us in this endurance race by example. No more no less.
Dr. Engr Odo Ijere