The Senate on Wednesday in Abuja confirmed the nomination of 85 ambassadorial nominees just as Senate PresidentDavid Mark appealed for a proper maintenance of foreign missions.
Mark, who made the appeal after the Senate had approved the list of ambassadorial nominees sent by the President, said Nigeria should keep open only missions that it was capable of maintaining.
“We don’t have to keep all the missions open if we can’t maintain them. When you travel out you are confronted with myriad of problems in the missions which is often embarrassing. ’’
The Senate President said it was embarrassing that some missions could not even afford to put their cars in order among several other myriad of challenges confronting them.
He urged the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs to take a critical look at all the foreign missions with the view to ensuring that all those operational were properly maintained.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Sen. Mathew Nwagwu (PDP-Imo) while presenting his report to the Senate, said out of the 88 nominees the committee had cleared 84.
He added that three of the nominees were not cleared because they did not answer questions to the satisfaction of members of the committee while one of nominees did not appear for screening.
Among those who did not satisfy the committee was a former member of the House of Representatives from Zamfara.
The Senate President, however, said that since he had not been indicted in any form, he should be confirmed being a former lawmaker and the senators all agreed and he was confirmed.
The Senate also agreed to give the other two nominees;? Mr Mathias Okafor (Ebonyi) and Mrs Sifawu Inu Umoru-Momoh (Edo) a second chance to appear before the committee since according to some senators they might have suffered stage fright.
For the nominee, who did not appear for screening, Mrs Bianca Ojukwu, the Senate said the committee should give her a time which was suitable for her to appear before it.
?This was because she was mourning her husband during the period of the screening.
Sen. Zainab Kure (PDP-Niger) had earlier expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that out of 88 nominees only eight were women and called on the President to fulfil his campaign promise to the women.
Speaking to journalists after the plenary session, Nwagu said the committee would invite the two remaining nominees for a second time within the next seven days.