Nigerian foreign missions across the globe are currently experiencing financial difficulty of non-payment of salaries and allowances for several months, investigation has shown.
The situation, which is caused by shortfall in the budgetary allocation of 2016 fiscal year coupled with delay in settlement of overhead and personal costs has resulted in Nigerian missions owing service providers in their host countries.
Those affected include the Permanent mission in New York and Washington in the U.S; Caracas, Venezuela, Brasilia, Brazil, Luanda, Angola, Bucharest, Romania, Hanoi, South Vietnam with salary arrears of nine months in Havana, Cuba.
The Nigerian Embassy in Havana is the worst hit as its foreign service officers and local staff have not been paid salaries up to nine months in addition to owing service providers since the last quarter of 2016.
The problem is compounded by the imposition of economic and financial blockade on Cuba by the United States through prohibiting fund transfer especially in US dollars to Cuba.
Allocations to Embassies in Cuba are paid in Euros, Canadian Dollars and Pound Sterling. Even at this, the US heavily fines banks found to have violated this policy.
But the Nigerian Embassy was able to, through the assistance of a bank in Cuba, find a way of receiving its allocations.
The problem lies with Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, which is in charge of remitting all Nigerian embassies’ allocations.
For payment, the bank sent all the allocations through two correspondent banks: JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.
Unbelievably, 99.9% of the allocations were sent through JP Morgan Chase and Cuba was given to Deutsche Bank, which rejected this arrangement and declined to send money to Cuba since the beginning of this year.
CBN is handicapped in remitting the funds through JP Morgan Chase because of the US policy in Cuba and no alternative was found by the bank.
However, embassies in Berlin and Cuba and the Ministry of External Affairs opened a dedicated account in Berlin for the Nigerian Embassy in Cuba. When part of the fund was remitted, the bank seized the funds based on an order by a German court against the Nigerian Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany is owing a company for services provided.
The implication is that for nine months, the Nigerian Embassy in Cuba has not been able to pay its staff.
The situation in the Embassy is so pathetic that officers are now surviving on their savings and salaries back home in Nigeria.
Besides, children of officials of the embassy have been out of school for three months due to their inability to pay fees.
Cuban government has reported the Embassy to the Ministry through its ambassador in Abuja due to the mounting debts owed service providers.
Though all services are provided by the Cuban government due to its communist system, the embassy is affected by non-payment of debt since this is one of its main sources of income.
Officers and their families could not access medical facilities designated for diplomats and expatriates. Even international school in Havana refused the children of the new Ambassador, Habu Ibrahim Gwani admission compelling the school to write to all other schools not to admit students from the Nigerian Embassy due to indebtedness.
Despite these difficulties being faced by the entire staff, Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent Final Notice of recall to officers who have completed their tour of duty in Havana.
In the letter dated October 26, 2017, the Ministry insisted that returning officers must leave the embassy immediately and return to Nigeria, with threat of issuing them queries if they failed to do so.
A diplomat, who spoke on the issue on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the Ministry had a penchant for such behavior, saying ” The Ministry had been doing that for years, but it is wrong that an officer will be on course and he is not been paid for nine months, how does the Ministry expect the officer to feed himself and his family and do other things?
“If that officer has been living on credit and he’s been ask to come back, how does he upset his credit before coming back? The Ministry is right to ask the officer to come back but the Ministry also has the obligation to pay them before they come back. Is the Ministry going to pay them in dollars or Naira when the expenditure was already in dollars?
It will be recall that the Senate President recently raised alarm that the nation’s diplomatic missions were facing challenges of inability to pay home-based officers allowances, local staff salaries, rent for residences and other staff.
The Senate, however, vowed to come up with ways to fix what it described as total mess and embarrassment to the country.
However, both the Nigerian Ambassador to Havana and Head of Administration declined comment when Vanguard contacted them and referred our reporter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Reacting to the story, spokesperson Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Tope Elias-Fatile, said “the issues involved are routine processes and the relevant department in the ministry is handling it.
”As we speak, there is an ongoing meeting to address these issues,” he said.
Explaining CBN’s involvement in the whole scenario, spokesman of the bank, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, said: “We do not react to hearsay. Please quote either the Foreign Affairs Minister or an identifiable official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
