Barely few days after criticizing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for wrongly extending the tenure of bashir Adewale Adeniyi as the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Lauretta Onochie, a former aide to late President Muhammadu Buhari has again descended on the president.
Onochie in a post shared on her verified X handle on Wednesday, took a swipe at President Tinubu over his failure to appoint foreign ambassadors for the nation’s foreign missions.
According to her, President Tinubu is running the country like his personal business, wondering whether the president understands that the ambassadors are the ones who relate with other countries on behalf of the nation.
Referencing President Tinubu’s recent visit to St. Lucia, Onochie said Tinubu prefers those countries where he’s “idolized and worshiped” rather than appointing replacement for Nigerian ambassadors abroad.
The former presidential aide described Tinubu as a “strategist who doesn’t know that Nigeria needs Ambassadors to relate with the rest of the world is running Nigeria like a private WhatsApp group.
“He prefers to relate to St. Lucia and Kazakhstan, where he can be idolised and worshipped for the right price.”
Recall that President Tinubu had in 2023 sacked all the Nigerian ambassadors to foreign missions, since then he has not announced replacement for them, as sources in his government blamed paucity of funds for the president’s action.
The magazine had earlier reported that Onochie tackled President Tinubu for extending the tenure of the Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, by one year.
Onochie said the extension was done with an ulterior motive. She said it was to prevent the next in rank, DCG BU Nwafor from ascending the top position.
On July 30, President Tinubu, in a release signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, extended Adeniyi’s tenure by one year.
Adeniyi was billed to retire in August, 2025, after 35 years in Service, having joined the Customs and Excise in August 1990. But President Tinubu extended his tenure, to, according to him, complete the good job he had started. Adeniyi was appointed to the position by Tinubu.
But Onochie, a former Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), slammed Tinubu for, by the extention, deliberately prevented Nwafor, a woman, native of Anambra State, from getting the top job.
DCG Nwafor is billed for retirement from Service in October 2026 when she will be 60 years old.
In a post on X, Onochie reeled out a number of reasons why Tinubu prevented Nwafor from the position. They include her gender, her State of origin, her having no husband or boyfriend in the Presidential Villa, no Governor’s backing, and more.
Meanwhile, it has been discovered that Nwafor is not the most senior DCG in the NCS, the findings, according to sources had thus put a lie to Onochie’s claim.
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