Envoys’ recall: It’s not difficult to sack Wali – FG

The Federal Government says it is not difficult to sack Foreign Affairs Minister Aminu Wali over the controversy trailing the purported recall of Nigerian diplomats to South Africa following xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals there.

The Minister of Information, Senator Patricia Akwashiki, stated this yesterday while briefing State House journalists after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.

President Goodluck Jonathan had Tuesday ordered the suspension of the ministry’s permanent secretary, Danjuma Sheni, for inviting the envoys for consultation without his knowledge.

A Presidency source had also hinted that the minister too would have been fired if not because Jonathan’s tenure would expire in a month’s time.

Responding to a question on why Jonathan had spared Wali whose ministry had caused the nation an embarrassment, Akwashiki said as the ministry’s accounting officer, the permanent secretary had to bear the brunt.

She noted that Wali was on an official duty outside Nigeria when Sheni invited the envoys for consultation.

“I don’t think it’s difficult to hold him...The president has now wielded the big stick by suspending the permanent secretary because it has happened. The minister wasn’t even in the country, he was out of the country on international programme when it happened. The minister is the minister, the permanent secretary is the accounting officer in the ministry. So, the stick had to fall on him”, she said.