The Nigerian High Commission in Ottawa, Canada is broke and has not been able to pay the salaries of its members of staff in the last two months. THISDAY checks revealed that apart from the difficulties posed by monthly staff emoluments, the embassy also lacks the resources to do rudimentary things such as routine maintenance of its building and settling its electricity and telephone bills.
It was learnt that the situation became so critical that the Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, was in Nigeria last week where he met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, in a bid to resolve the issues.
A source at the High Commission who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that most of the staff now use their personal credit cards to do what should ordinarily should have been done by the embassy.
The situation, our source said, had become embarrassing as the staff including non- Nigerians working with the embassy have begun to complain openly.
The situation, our source said, had become embarrassing as the staff including non- Nigerians working with the embassy have begun to complain openly.
THISDAY also learnt that the situation in Ottawa is not different from what obtains in several other Nigerian Missions abroad including Geneva, Switzerland.
It was gathered that some Nigerian embassy officials have also resorted to seeking the assistance of some friendly colleagues serving in other missions, particularly those members of the diplomatic community from the West African region.
The source also disclosed that the embassy staff in Ottawa were jubilant when Chief Ojo Maduekwe, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, was named the High Commissioner to Canada.
However, they appear to be regretting as Maduekwe seem not to have taken any advantage of his previous “connections”.
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