{"id":96722,"date":"2025-12-18T14:34:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T14:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=96722"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:34:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T14:34:17","slug":"senate-confirms-mahmood-yakubu-femi-fani-kayode-ibok-ete-ibas-and-60-others-as-ambassadors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=96722","title":{"rendered":"Senate confirms Mahmood Yakubu, Femi Fani-Kayode, Ibok-Ete Ibas and 60 Others as Ambassadors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate on Thursday confirmed a fresh batch of ambassadorial nominees forwarded by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, including prominent figures such as Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Femi Fani-Kayode, former Minister of Aviation; and Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, former sole administrator of Rivers State.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_62663\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62663\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-62663\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Mahmood-Yakubu-300x162.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Mahmood-Yakubu-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Mahmood-Yakubu.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-62663\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, former INEC Chairman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In plenary, the Senate approved a total of 64 ambassadorial appointments, comprising 34 career diplomats and 30 non-career envoy-designates.<\/p>\n<p>The decision followed the presentation and adoption of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs\u2019 report by its chairman, Senator Sani Bello (APC\u2013Niger North), who told lawmakers that all nominees \u201cwere found worthy of their appointments\u201d and that there were no substantive disqualifying petitions.<\/p>\n<p>Among the non-career ambassadors confirmed alongside Yakubu, Fani-Kayode and Ibas were former presidential adviser Reno Omokri, Jimoh Ibrahim, former governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), as well as other high-profile politicians and public servants.<\/p>\n<p>Career diplomatic posts went to seasoned foreign service officers such as Arewa Esther, Adeola-Ibrahim Mopelola, Ramat Omonbolale, and others with varied experience in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p>Senate President Urges Strong Representation Abroad<\/p>\n<p>After the voice vote confirmation, Senate President Godswill Akpabio congratulated the ambassador-designates, encouraging them to \u201crepresent Nigeria well\u201d in their respective missions around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said the confirmed nominees will now return to the State House for swearing-in by President Tinubu, who will subsequently deploy them to various countries where Nigeria maintains diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n<p>President Tinubu had earlier transmitted multiple batches of names to the Senate. Starting in late November, he first sent three nominees, followed by an expanded list of 32, and later a combined list amounting to 65 names for confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>The nominations drew mixed reactions across Nigeria\u2019s political spectrum. Some parties \u2014 including the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP) \u2014 criticized aspects of the list, questioning selections such as that of Prof. Yakubu on ethical grounds and calling for reconsideration.<\/p>\n<p>Proponents of the appointments, however, argued that the mix of career diplomats and experienced non-career figures will help enhance Nigeria\u2019s international profile, boost bilateral engagements, and drive foreign policy priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate on Thursday confirmed a fresh batch of ambassadorial nominees forwarded by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, including prominent figures such as Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Femi Fani-Kayode, former Minister of Aviation; and Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, former sole administrator of Rivers State. In plenary, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":93363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[1594,7715,7714,4221,142],"class_list":["post-96722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","category-news","tag-ambassadors","tag-ibas","tag-mahmood","tag-omokri","tag-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}