Tinubu Needs To Put His Minister In Order, Threat To Sue UN Puts Nigeria In Bad Light — Ex-Diplomat On Kennedy-Ohanenye’s Comment By Ololade

 

Former deputy special representative of the United Nations (UN) secretary-general for Somalia, Babafemi Badejo, says Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, the minister of women affairs, should be more coordinated.

The ex-diplomat spoke on Tuesday in reaction to the minister’s threat to sue the United Nations for allegedly mismanaging donor funds meant for Nigeria.

The minister said if the global body does not furnish her ministry with the necessary records on or before November 15, she would take legal action.

She had said: “I stand here as the minister of women affairs to demand from the UN, the account of all the monies they sourced from donors in Nigeria’s name. We want to see the account of what they did.

“If you don’t give us this account, at least let Nigerians see what is going on, then you [UN] apologise to them.

“From 16th of October to November 15, if we don’t get those reports for Nigerians to see, we are heading to court. [They have] from 16th October to November 8.

“They will get our pre-action letter that is to prepare that by 15th we are heading to court and I am promising Nigerians that by 15th you will hear the lawsuit number.”

Reacting, Badejo said while it is “very proper” for the minister to ask for “accountability and transparency”, her approach can “portray Nigeria in a bad light.”

While maintaining that the minister should have been apprised of the importance of diplomatic and functional immunity that the UN and its officials enjoy, he said President Bola 6 Tinubu “needs to have his ministers coordinated and appropriately socialised into their respective duties.”

“Experience shows that some UN officials are corrupt, and some have accordingly been jailed. However, there are laid down arrangements for such requests by a sovereign nation. Not following the laid down procedure and embarking on media grandstanding can only portray Nigeria in a bad light. Nigeria is telling the world that it lacks the requisite leadership and structures for appropriate operation in the community of nations.

“The United Nations system’s counterpart in Nigeria is the ministry of foreign affairs. Even, if the minister of foreign affairs, after exhaustive dialogue within his department of international organisations has decided on the need to request for transparency from the UN, it is expected that he would take the case to the federal executive council (FEC) before articulating, if at all, such a weighty position at a media show.

“In which court is our minister of women affairs intending to embark on her frolic? What would be the charges? What is the expected outcome of such a litigation process?

“The minister of women affairs will do well to address corruption in her ministry by collaborating with the ongoing probe, by at least one of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies,” the statement read.

The former diplomat called on Kennedy-Ohanenye to “make a big difference” in her ministry by building processes to empower women and “reduce national poverty.”