Ambassador Rafiu Adejare Bello returned to his home town, Ede, Osun State, to a tumultuous welcome recently after his duty as the country’s representative to Mexico.

Adejare Bello was Nigeria’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Mexican States with concurrent accreditation to Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama, a position he took up in June 2021 and occupied until October last year.

Before assuming the position, the law graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, was an elected member of the Osun State House of Assembly on the platform of the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) in December 1997; elected member of the Osun State House of Assembly to represent Ede North Constituency under the platform of the All Peoples Party from 1999 to 2003 and became the Minority Leader of the House.

He was re-elected as a member of the Osun State House of Assembly to represent Ede North Constituency in 2003-2007 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party and was unanimously elected Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly from 3rd June 2003 to 2007 and also serve as speaker from 2007-2011.

In this interview with Jimoh Babatunde, he shares his experience as an ambassador, and other issues relating to foreign missions and Osun politics.

Here is an excerpt.

On his experience

We give thanks to God Almighty that we went and returned home in peace. I remember the announcement was made by the former president, Muhammad Buhari, on the 1st of July, 2020 to recall the then ambassadors came around August/September and they didn’t leave till about October/November and our training started in February 2021 in Abuja and to sending our names to the host countries for background checking.

Some of us left in May, some in June for our posting. I left Nigeria on 15th June 2021 and we were able to do a lot of things. The first thing was to look at the handover notes, to know where to start. Thank God, I was able to meet with about 2, 000 Nigerians in Mexico and very handful in Costa Rica, and Guatemala. I was able to call a meeting of Nigerians there and told them of the need to be united by having a formidable association there. While there, they were able to elect their exco. Mexico is large, twice the size of Nigeria and that was a challenge for them to meet physically. So they do most of their meeting through Zoom.

In a nutshell, the association was formed and functioning. Another big one I met from the handover notes from my predecessor, Ambassador Yawa from Adamawa state was the issue of suspension of the importation of Hibiscus flower from Nigeria. It was discovered in 2017 that some Nigerians mixed their products with some plants of about three containers. So they banned the importation of Hibiscus flowers from Nigeria. When a new ambassador from Mexico was appointed to Nigeria and before he came to Nigeria, I hosted him and I raised the issue with him on how to resolve the issue and he advised. I approached the matter and we overcame the problem.

I got in touch with Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS) an agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and on October 22, through the equivalent office in Mexico, called Senasica, invited hibiscus flower exporter from Nigeria to Mexico and we all met. The matter was resolved. Thereafter, the importers in Mexico and exporters from Nigeria were asked to meet in my office to iron out the details and we were able to do that, specifically on 4th October 2022.

Senesica then placed some conditions that the exportation of hibiscus flowers to Mexico would begin in January 2023 and it has begun since. You know what got me annoyed was that the hibiscus flower from Nigeria was referred to as American hibiscus. Thank God we were able to stop that.

The business has since resumed and doing well, I monitor them through the quarantine service to maintain standards. Another big thing for me was being able to bring Mexican investors to Nigeria. It is not on record that any Nigerian ambassador did that from Mexico. Immediately I resumed there, I told myself that there was no point wasting my time if I couldn’t influence businesses into Nigeria.

So there is an association with the class of billionaire who advise their government on where to invest. I invited them to my office because they are the eyes of Mexico on which country to do business with and around August they indicated an interest in coming to Nigeria around November 2023. If you recall, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recalled all ambassadors and we were to return home lastest 31 October 2023, but then I told the investors of my intention to leave by 2nd week of November, they said I must stay back to come with them to Nigeria.

I had to stay back to come with them, we arrived on November 20 and they are exploring where to invest. They have collaborators from Hong Kong and China among other places. They are interested in agriculture, mines, and energy and we met some ministers, central bank officials and other government officials. Very soon we will have the presence of Mexican investors in Nigeria.

On funding of Nigeria embassies

This is a big challenge. As we sit here, the foreign affairs ministry and the Nigerian embassy in Mexico are still owing me lots of money. I used my salary to fund my official travels from November 2021 till I left.

Most often, the work of an ambassador is representational. You get invitations from all to represent your government. Will I say because there is no fund you will not do what you ought to do? When I came with the investors, I told the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, who said once there are records my money would be paid.

Not all ambassadors could use their money to fund their offices. Thank God that I was able to do that and the results are there. I want to thank the president for what he has been doing since he came in and that has given investors confidence to invest in Nigeria.

The confidence the investors have that they can repatriate their funds is high. I have some pieces of advice for the country as people are talking about the naira losing value to the Dollar on an hourly basis. It is not going to be easy except we tackle it headlong. There is a trade imbalance as we import more than we export. There will be pressure on the dollar, so the majority of what we import to Nigeria today are not needed.

I want the president to take a drastic decision as he did with the fuel subsidy and the foreign exchange. So, we should place a total ban on not less than 85 items. The trade must balance and tilt towards Nigeria.

For example, for the car manufacturers, we can ask them to bring their plants here, which will employ our people and save the foreign exchange we use in importing these items. Mr. President should ban some of these items.

I was amazed when I heard CBN unbanned 43 items that had been banned previously. We can only allow those who are in critical need to import for manufacturing. If we don’t do that Nigerians will continue to suffer. Things are extremely difficult now, but I want to assure Nigerians under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed things will get better and we need to exercise patience more.

While the President is busy moving around to get investors, the Vice President is holding the fort. All the measures being taken by the government will start yielding positive results very soon.

On what Nigeria can do to overcome the challenge of fund

We have home-based officers in all embassies from the ambassadors and officials from foreign affairs and we have the local staff like my drivers and some Nigerians there we employed.

The embarrassment the home-based officers faced from landlords is something else. it is just Nigerian home-based officers who face this embarrassment. We have to put a stop to it and I will advise the president to look into that. It is not good for our reputation. If we know we can’t cater for many embassies, we can prune the number for effectiveness.

Like, as I told you, owing me for official work is not too good. We need to do what we need to do to maintain the country’s reputation.

On foreign policy

It has always been the position of Nigeria since 1960 that we are a non-aligned nation. We don’t belong to the East or West block.

So far so good Nigeria is respected worldwide because we don’t intervene in what does not concern us. The role we played in Burkina Faso; and Nigeria people took to be something the president should not have dabbled into. But with our position in Africa, we can’t afford to fold our hands.

I appreciate the approach of the government now of sticks and carrots.

On Osun politics

Since I left Nigeria in 2021, it has not applied to me, because I never abandoned my people.

When I returned, you saw the rousing welcome for me in Ede, the hometown of the sitting governor. As I was in Mexico I never lost touch with Nigeria and had more time to listen to Nigerian news.

If you are the type that is not tight-fisted, people will make sure you are very relevant. I am still relevant as ever before.

On Osun APC factions

Well, people say never say never. The two factions can come together before the next election because the moment we realized the need to come together and work for the progress of the party, the better for APC.

The havoc that would do to the party in Osun state will be great if we don’t come together. I believe those who have wronged the party need to be punished, but you don’t ostracise them.

I want to urge the President to intervene in the issue of Osun state politics.

When this problem started, I remembered the President sent me to two leaders of the party here to see him, but they refused to see him.

The problem at the party was carried too far by some of us. Can’t imagine the President inviting some of them and they refused. That was too bad before the election.

I want the president to forget the past and intervene again ahead of the 2026 election.