President Bola Tinubu has approved the posting of three ambassador-designates to France, the United States and the United Kingdom, more than two years after Nigeria recalled all its envoys abroad, with the appointments covering Colonel Lateef Are to the United States, Ambassador Ayodele Oke to France and Ambassador Amin Dalhatu to the United Kingdom, a move that follows Tinubu’s September 2023 directive recalling ambassadors from Nigeria’s 109 foreign missions comprising 76 embassies, 22 high commissions and 11 consulates, leaving most missions to be run by chargés d’affaires or senior consular officers with limited authority, as Are, who hails from Ogun State, brings a background spanning military, intelligence and diplomacy, having been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant from the Nigerian Defence Academy in December 1974 as part of Regular Course 12 where he graduated among the best ten officers and was deployed to the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps alongside course mates who later rose to prominence, including General Owoye Andrew Azazi, Colonel Sambo Dasuki and Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye, while academically he earned a First Class Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Ibadan in 1980, winning multiple prizes as best graduating student, before obtaining a master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos in 1987, and professionally he worked closely with General Aliyu Gusau at the Directorate of Military Intelligence and was appointed Director-General of the State Security Service in 1999 by President Olusegun Obasanjo on Gusau’s recommendation, later serving as Deputy National Security Adviser under President Goodluck Jonathan and briefly as Acting National Security Adviser in 2010 before being replaced by Azazi, with his post-office years marked by a public dispute with the State Security Service in 2015 over his Ikoyi residence allocated as a post-service benefit, a matter he challenged in court after alleging that operatives forced his family out despite a court order, leading a Federal High Court to order his reinstatement pending determination of the suit, as his posting to Washington comes amid heightened scrutiny of Nigeria–US relations following recent remarks by US officials on security challenges in the country.
