Falana backs FG over pull out of 90 international bodies

Human Rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has thrown his weight behind the proposal of the Federal Government of Nigeria to pull out of 90 international institutions across the globe.

Falana, whose comment was broadcast on Channels Television Station on Friday, said the government was in order to decide to prioritise its obligations at the international scene, citing example of a North African country he said he visited where the Nigerian Embassy had maintained a rented property of $800,000 per annum without any commensurate returns since 1962, which amounts to $8 million in ten years.

He wondered that Nigeria could have done well if it had taken $8 million loan to build a permanently owned Embassy property in that country and therefore did not see sense in continuing to keep such spending.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Wednesday said the Federal Government had pulled out from 90 international bodies so as to be able to meet up with its obligations.

Adeosun, who disclosed this at Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said that the country had spent $70 million annually as a member of 310 international organizations, adding that it had not been meeting up with its obligations.

She said a committee has been set up to consider the organizations the country was exiting from and that the committee was expected to submit its report within two weeks.

The minister added that the committee would prioritise the organisations the country would to retain.