Immediate past service chiefs today got the approval of the Senate to be non-career ambassadors.
General Abayomi Olonisakin (retd) (Ekiti); Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd) (Borno); Vice Admiral Ibok- Ette Ibas (retd) (Cross River); Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar (retd) (Bauchi); and Air Vice Marshal Muhammad S. Usman (Rtd) (Kano) made the list of the new ambassadors.
Their confirmation came after the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa (APC, Bauchi).
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But an attempt by the Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, to draw the attention of his colleagues to a petition against their confirmation was stopped by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.
Abaribe had asked Bulkachuwa to explain why the petition against them was dismissed but Lawan said the petition lacked merit.
Buratai had, during the confirmation hearing last week, said it may take Nigeria another 20 years to eliminate Boko Haram insurgents.
He said the terrorists have, for a long time, indoctrinated the people, making it difficult to defeat them within a short period.
The former army chief said though Nigerian troops, in collaboration with their counterparts in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, had been recording successes in the anti-Boko Haram war, military onslaught only could not end the crisis.
According to him, there are political and socio-economic factors that need to be addressed as many communities in northern Nigeria lack basic amenities.
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