Nigeria Pulls Out Of 90 International Organisations Due To Financial Obligations

The Federal Government has announced that the decision to withdraw its membership from 90 international organisations was due to the country’s inability to meet its financial obligations.

The withdrawal was announced on Wednesday by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) ‎meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

It is understood that the withdrawal is as a result of a backlog of $120 million in membership dues and other financial commitments.

She said the council agreed that henceforth, the country would only belong to international organisations considered to be necessary.

Her words: “Basically, Nigeria is a member of 310 international organisations and a committee was set up to review the rationale of our continued membership of such a large number of our organisations, particularly in the light of the fact that in many cases we are not actually paying our financial obligations and subscriptions which is causing some embarrassment to Nigeria and our image abroad,” she said.

“In particular, it was discussed that there are some commitments made to international organisations made by former presidents which were not cash backed. So, when our delegations turn up at those organisations, we become very embarrassed. So that was what drove the committee.

“The committee made some recommendations: That out of the 310 organisations, 220 organisations should be retained and the rest we should withdraw membership from.

“But council directed that more work needed to be done, particularly there was a dispute as to the figure of how much is owed. The committee had a figure of about $ 120 million but we are clear from ministry of finance and other ministries that is far more than that. Our subscriptions are in arrears in a number of major organisations.

“So, the directive of the council was that we should go and reconcile those figures and come back to council and have a payment plan for those figures to avoid Nigeria being embarrassed internationally. And also circulars needed to be issued on who can commit Nigeria because it was discovered it would be a director or an ambassador who attended the meeting who committed subscription on behalf of Nigeria. Of course, then the international organisation then begins to chase us for its money.”

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