If foreign missions dare Nigeria

The other day, Nigeria issued a warning. Maybe it would be heeded. But it is good ambassadors here heard it, though. It came from the nation’s Foreign Affairs Minister. He had had ambassadors shepherded into the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa House, Abuja, that day. Treat Nigerians well; treat them according to known standards in the diplomatic circle. That was what Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru had said days back. He meant nice treatment for his compatriots when they bombard embassies with visa applications. Nigerians must apply for visas, any kind of visa. So embassies here do with them what they wish, including breaking every rule in the book. Including collecting visa fees in dollars, not in naira. It has been on for years. That foreign ambassadors got talked to on this matter is not the surprise; that the warning is heeded at all is going to be the surprise. For there are reasons to suspect that embassies may ignore the foreign affairs minister. Nigerians too ignore their government officials, and nothing happens.

Rules guard how embassies conduct themselves in other nations. The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations is the template, Ambassador Ashiru said so. The Convention was signed in 1963. In it, a consul, like an ambassador, operates from an embassy in another country. Now, the Convention contains 79 articles. Thirteen functions of a consul are listed in it. That includes protecting the interests of the sending state and its nationals in the host state. He also develops the commercial, economic, cultural, and scientific relations between the two countries. Provisos exist. A few of them here: The host nation may at any time and for any reason declare a particular member of the consular staff to be persona non grata; The sending state must recall such a person, otherwise he may lose his consular immunity; the host nation may not enter the consular premises, and must protect the premises from intrusion or damage — Nigerians know that the Nigerian Police do that even beyond what they are instructed to do; freedom of communication between the consul and their home country must be preserved; host state must never open a consular; a consular courier must never be detained. Nigerians know that their officers at entry ports honour all of this to a fault, especially when their pockets stand to benefit.

And let it be noted that hardly does Nigeria deviate from rules, or claim exemption to the Convention under its domestic laws. Whether this is in the nation’s interest is another matter. But how the United States of America goes about this is worth noting: That country in March 2005, pulled out of the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention, which allows the International Court of Justice to have compulsory jurisdiction over disputes arising under the Convention. In June 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled that foreign nationals who were not notified of their rights to consular notification and access after an arrest may not use the treaty (Vienna Convention) violation to suppress evidence obtained in police interrogation or belatedly raise legal challenges after trial. There are many more. Has Nigeria ever undertaken such extensive rebellion against the Vienna Convention? No. And does the country bend over to please other countries where consular matters are concerned? Lately, President Goodluck Jonathan caused the foreign affairs ministry to instruct Nigerian embassies to make the visa application process for foreigners much easier. Yet, Nigerians are often on the receiving end of the worst treatment that other nations can offer, whether in consular matters or in bilateral agreements. One of such was the wrangling over the number of flights, and landing at the UK’s Heathrow Airport for Nigeria’s Arik Airline, compared to British Airways that did as it pleased here, both in the number of flights to Nigeria, and in illegal flight charges.

When Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister spoke on the matter of charging visa fees in dollars in the country, as against the local currency that the Convention stipulates, he did say complaints had come to his office. Well, complaints have always gone to the offices of officials, but for reasons no one can state, they are often ignored. For taking such a grand step in this matter, the minister should be applauded. Compare that with a case in Austria, the very country where the Convention was signed. There have been complaints that that country deports Nigerians in hundreds, and that the current Nigerian ambassador to Austria has been accused of being an accomplice. Nigerians out there say Madam Ambassador signs deportation papers without proper investigations. It is said that a former ambassador to the same country had verified cases, in accordance with known practice, before he signed Nigerians for deportation as the host country requested, and that did limit the number sent back home. The version of the story from Nigerians resident in Austria has it that this led to a row with the host country, and the said ambassador ran into trouble as a result and had since been recalled. But then, even the Austrian government treats Nigerians living in that country with disdain, according to the umbrella organisation of Nigerians in Austria, National Association of Nigerian Community Austria. For instance when the Nigerian government says that a document is genuine, and carries the official stamps of the Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Austrian authority does not recognise it until it makes the Austrian embassy in Nigeria ask the person involved to pay around N150, 000 (around €800) for a local lawyer to go and verify such documents.

Beyond that is the worry that the meeting Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister had with the foreign envoys may not yield the intended fruits. Knowing that foreigners learn quickly from Nigerians, pessimism is justified in this case. If embassies dare Nigeria, ignoring the minister, it is because they have learnt from Nigerians, individual and corporate, who ignore directives from their officials. Over four weeks ago, the Central Bank of Nigeria directed that banks should no longer charge N100 when customers use ATM machines in banks other than theirs. This writer had read on the screens of ATM machines, in the past few days, the usual message warning customers of the N100 charge awaiting them. Yet, no less a person than the CBN deputy governor, Dr. Kingsley Moghalu , had said no banks would ignore the directive. And if they did, Nigerians should report to the CBN. Will Nigerians go and queue up at the gate of the CBN head office in Abuja to complain about illegal deductions? Orders are given, orders are disobeyed even in official circles. Rather than for the appropriate authorities to monitor compliance and make erring organisations face the consequences, the matter is pushed to Nigerians, the same way officials ignore complaints about maltreatments from foreign embassies and no one had cared over the years.

One other notable example is the case of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria and Capital Oil, an indigenous oil marketing company. The former took over the premises of the latter, with a threat to sell off its assets for alleged indebtedness. Court said AMCOM should leave the premises of Capital Oil with immediate effect, but the body stayed for more than a week thereafter. When it chose to leave, the news wrap on TV had read: AMCON agrees to quit premises of Capital Oil. Point taken? An organisation agrees to obey a court order at its own discretion, and at its own convenient time, its claim being that it had filed an appeal.

In the case of a warning from Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister, one wonders if officials at the embassies in the country are laughing, changing their procedures, in order to circumvent the warning issued to them. There are also reasons to wonder if they will make obvious gestures of complying, while some Nigerians sell ideas to them on how to comply, meanwhile devising other means of collecting dollars in the visa application process. After all, this is Naija, as the county is called, where even state officials can teach foreigners how to beat the system. Examples abound. All of this is not unlikely to happen, but one message that should go to the foreign affairs minister is this: Like his counterpart in the Aviation Ministry is doing, sticking to rules as stated in the book and getting foreign airline operators to comply without blinking, he too should set his antennae in every direction. If embassies dare the country on this matter that is a straight case of breach of standard, his ministry should identify the specific officials involved in that chain of illegality and apply the stick of sending them back home, as the Vienna Convention provides. One should think these are times government officials ought to concentrate on earning a modicum of respect for Nigerians, and for the country. It’s in this they are performing their duties; anything short of it means they are warming their official chairs.