By Bolaji Ogundele, AbujaPresident Muhammadu Buhari has urged Nigerias new Ambassadors to project the country as a great country and a good investment destination, in their various new places of assignment.The President spoke virtually on Tuesday from the State House at the Induction /Orientation Exercise For Ambassadors-Designate, Consuls-General and Charge D Affaires Entitre held at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) auditorium.The President also charged them to continually project the strengths of Nigeria, showcase priorities of the government and uphold standards that will bring honour to the country.He told the diplomats to always be mindful of the policy direction of the government, particularly the nine priorities it had listed.Buhari reminded the diplomats, who would soon be posted to serve as the countrys representatives abroad, to be exemplary in their conducts.You have all been nominated and appoint after a rigorous selection process, with due consideration to your personal and professional qualities. The primary responsibilities of Nigeria in the countries you are posted rests on you. I urge you to go out and serve with uttermost dedication and pride.You must not forget that you have been posted to respective bilateral and multilateral missions, to represent and project Nigeria as a great and indivisible nation and a very attractive investment destination.As Ambassadors of our country, your comportment, courage, conduct and ability to multi task must be exemplary. Humility and firmness are attributes that can earn you and your country respect and recognition. These attributes must remain with every one of you in fulfillment of your duties.The President reminded the Ambassadors of his administrations nine priority areas of building a thriving and sustainable economy, poverty reduction, food security and fight against corruption among others, which will help attain sustainable development as well as guide its foreign policy objective.He, therefore, urged them to be guided by the priority goals as they represent Nigeria in foreign lands, adding that government expects them to also protect the interest of Nigerians residing in those countries.I therefore urge all of you to be guided by these identified priority goals as well as your various station chatters which highlight specific mandates and guidelines on governments expectations. We expect you to fight hard for Nigeria and Nigerians abroad.You must strive to promote trade, human capacity development foreign direct investments and other areas of cooperation with countries at national and multilateral levels, to support our national growth and development, he said.President Buhari made reference to how COVID-19 has ravaged the world and the need to thread carefully and embrace the new norm.You all are Aware that for some time now, national and global resources have continued to shrink, a situation compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. One event, one virus, has changed the world order. Our world will never be the same again. But we will continue to innovate and cope with the new norm in order to contain the catastrophic consequences of this pandemic.The world must resolutely commit itself to global concerted actions to fight and defeat this common enemy together. Nigerias diplomacy must make specific contributions to common global challenges on how this health pandemic should be contained and eventually defeated, he said.READ ALSO:Buhari: FG will support Lagos drive to boost potentialsPresident Buhari said traditional challenges of terrorism, violent extremism, climate change, poverty population explosion, cybercrimes, proliferation of arms and many others, which have negatively impacted Nigeria and other parts of Africa, remain part of our nations critical challenges.Our levels of diplomacy must help address bilaterally as well as multilaterally these continuing challenges. I implore all of you to pay due attention to all of these in order to register successes for our country and citizens as Nigeria engages the world, he charged the new Ambassadors.Furthermore, he urged them to leverage on their goodwill as the countrys principal representative abroad to help deliver prosperity to millions of Nigerians in the countries they find themselves.You are required to attend to all Nigerian citizens who come to our missions with utmost dignity, respect and promptness; providing necessary assistance with courtesy, commitment and efficiency, he advised.In his remarks, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said the thrust of President Buharis foreign policy was clearly defined since 2015 as neighbourliness, diplomacy and engagement, describing it as the Buhari doctrine.The Minister told the diplomats that the Presidents foreign policy focus was also similar to that adopted by President Joe Biden of the United States, with emphasis on promoting goodwill that attracts friends to the country, enhance security and bolster the economy.The result of the Buhari doctrine is that Mr. President is in good terms with all countries of the world, and this will make your jobs easier, he added.President Buhari had last month approved and directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to post 95 new Ambassadors, to serve in the countrys missions abroad. They are expected to resume their tour of duty at the end of their induction exercise.
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