Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, Monday assumed office as the Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, promising to bring her wealth of experience to bear in actualising President Bola Tinubu’s foreign policy agenda.
She reported to the Tafawa Balewa House, Abuja at after the swearing in ceremony by President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Minister of State was received by the Permanent Secretary, Dunoma Ahmed, top management staff of the ministry.
Speaking to newsmen shortly after being showned her office, Ambassador, Bianca Ojukwu said, she will bring her wealth of experience to bear in driving President Bola Tinubu’s 4Ds foreign policy direction.
The former Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain also said she will work with the Minister, Ambassador, Yusuf Tuggar to ensure that the rights of Nigerians in diaspora are protected.
She said: ” I call it our ministry because this is essentially my second missionary journey to MFA. And as you can see, it was a very warm welcome, and I feel right at home. I believe that the president knows what is imperative in Nigeria’s foreign policy. I am, of course, yet to be briefed by HMFA.
“But essentially, we all in this ministry will be keying into the four tenets of the foreign policy thrust of the president, being democracy, strengthening democratic institutions, especially around the African continent, development, keying into the African continental free trade area to harness our immense economic potentials, and of course, taking advantage of Nigeria’s demography. As you all know, 70% of our population is under the age of 43. So that’s a huge demographic.
“And we fully intend to harness the immense potentials at their disposal to ensure that our country gets that burst of creative talent, skills, of the vibrant energy of youth and what they bring to a re-dynamic country.
“Most importantly, we intend to key into the president’s initiatives regarding the diaspora. We all know how strategic our diaspora population is.
“I mean, the Diaspora remits $22 billion. And you can see what we can achieve if we leverage on their economy and the foreign direct investment that they can help engineer and drive. Something that is very important, I think, to most of us here, and I say this because this ministry has a crop of some of the most dedicated officers.
“I have worked with many of them, and they are dedicated to the advancement of the foreign interests of this country. And they are also dedicated, and I saw, during my tenure as ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain, really what they were able to bring to bear with very limited funding and how they were able to intervene for the benefit of our citizens abroad. That’s a very, very important aspect for us to ensure that our embassies, our missions really abroad, are run more efficiently, to ensure that they’re able to provide greater services, seamless services to our citizens, and also to ensure that we’re able to come to the aid of our citizens abroad in distress, wherever they may be.
“So I think, essentially, this keys into and aligns with the President’s foreign policy objectives. He, today, made it clear that we’re facing challenging times, but if we all join hands, commit ourselves to ensuring that we can lift this country from the situation in which we find ourselves, then the sky is the limit for what we’re going to be able to do, especially in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
