Adesina hails Onyeama’s remarkable leadership as foreign minister

PRESIDENT of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina has heaped encomiums on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, for what he described as the minister’s  “remarkable leadership and service”.

Adesina noted that Onyeama’s outstanding diplomatic relations with other countries have resulted in the appointments of technocrats and professionals of Nigerian extraction into global positions.

The Nigeria’s former Minister of  Agriculture said this on his official Twitter handle two days ago.

He wrote, “I am so proud of Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister ⁦Geoffrey Onyeama⁩ for his remarkable service and leadership,”

“This meek, gentle and humble diplomat is outstanding. Under his watch with strong support of President ⁦Buhari⁩, Nigerians got elected into global positions.” Adesina added.

The AfDB President said this in recognition of the increase in the number of Nigerians who rose into limelight under the watch of Onyeama who was first made the Minister of foreign affairs in 2015 at the inception of the Buhari Administration and later reappointed in 2019 for a second term in office.

Some Nigerian professionals recently got appointments into top government positions in global organisations, as well as the United States and United Kingdom (UK).

This includes the reelection of Adesina in 2020 as AfDB  president, despite opposition from the United States of America which prompted a probe into his first term in office.

Former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, too, broke the record by becoming the first female and first African Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Okonjo-Iweala appointment, too, was met with stiff opposition from the US.

Many other Nigerians, on the strength of their abilities coupled with good diplomatic relations with their countries of residence, were offered positions in cabinets of governments across the world.

In 2019, Boris Johnson, British prime minister, named Kemi Badenoch a minister in his cabinet.

In November 2020, United States President Joe Biden appointed Adewale Adeyemo as deputy secretary of the treasury department.

Biden also appointed Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo into his cabinet as white house counsel, as well as Osaremen Okolo as a member of his COVID-19 response team.

The UK has also nominated Dapo Akande, a British-Nigerian professor, as its candidate for the International Law Commission of the United Nations (UN).