My attention was drawn to the article written by Ruona Agbroko-Meyer and Ini Ekott in the Premium Times of 26 May 2013 with the headline, Nigeria: Investigation \u2013 How Nigeria Squanders Millions On Generators Its Foreign Missions Don\u2019t Need. I took the liberty to change the heading to reflect the true situation of Nigerian Diplomatic Missions with a view to correcting the impression of deliberate manipulation of the Budgetary process to secure, from the Government, funding that isn\u2019t needed. I will, for record purpose, only talk about the Consulate General of Nigeria, New York and, to an extent, the Embassy of Nigeria, Niamey, Niger.<\/p>\n
The Consulate General of Nigeria and the Permanent Mission to the United Nations, in New York, occupy the Nigeria House, a twenty-two stories (22) building owned by the Federal Government. In compliance with the regulations of New York State and the Fire Department of New York City, the Building, must have a functioning standby Electricity Generator, as well as, other security installations, which must be system checked monthly, fuelled, serviced periodically and tested every month. The Generator must be capable of providing standby electricity to Nigeria House for 24 hours, in the first instance.<\/p>\n
The Fire Department doesn\u2019t give the owner of a building notice when they come for on the spot check on the functionality of their standby Generator. In actual fact, the Nigeria House, in April 2013, hosted the Fire Department to such impromptu mandatory inspection. I am glad to say that standby Generator of Nigeria House was given a clean bill of health.<\/p>\n
You may wish to note that, when, in 2002, Government stopped allocating funds for the maintenance of the standby Generators, the American Protocol and Security operatives refused to allow any Nigerian President to enter Nigeria House when in New York. It was this situation that prompted His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, to approve the repair of the Standby Generator, in 2011, in compliance with the New York State and the Fire Department regulations. If Nigeria House hadn\u2019t been a Diplomatic Premises governed by the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the US Government would have shut it down forthwith as an unsafe building since 2002 due to lack of a functioning standby Generator.<\/p>\n
On the Embassy of Nigeria, Niamey, where I served for five years in the 1990s, the Embassy possesses a 1000 kva standby Generator which must also be maintained. It is mandatory in Niger Republic to obtain Government consent before installation of a standby Generator. You must also agree to comply with their regulations despite of your Diplomatic status.<\/p>\n
I wish to therefore caution that, just because we tend to overlook Nigeria\u2019s regulations on the installation of standby Generators, it doesn\u2019t mean that other Countries do not take them seriously. I would have thought that you would look up our own regulations and see how much of it we comply with when installing standby Generators in our houses.<\/p>\n
I would, therefore, be most appreciative, if you kindly correct the erroneous story being circulated as an investigative reporting. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a very responsible entity and would never deliberately manipulate the Budgetary process with a view to secure funding for which it has no need.<\/p>\n
Ambassador Habib Habu, OON
\nConsul General,
\nConsulate General of Nigeria, New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My attention was drawn to the article written by Ruona Agbroko-Meyer and Ini Ekott in the Premium Times of 26 May 2013 with the headline, Nigeria: Investigation \u2013 How Nigeria…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n