The Giant’s Empty Chair: Why the World Stopped Waiting for Nigeria
By Amofin Beulah Adeoye
On the afternoon of August 8, 2024, inside the Velodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines on the outskirts of Paris, the Nigerian state collapsed in microcosm. Ese Ukpeseraye, a Nigerian cyclist who had qualified for the Keirin and Sprint events, stood on the track without a bicycle. It was not that the equipment was lost in transit; it was that the Nigerian sports federation had not arranged for a track-specific bike for the event.
In a moment of supreme irony that was broadcast to billions, it was not the Nigerian government that saved her race, but the Bund Deutscher Radfahrer (the German Cycling Federation). They lent Ukpeseraye a German bicycle so she could compete wearing green and white. This incident is not an anecdote. It is the perfect metaphor for a foreign policy that has prioritized presence over preparation for sixty years. We arrived in Paris as the “Giant of Africa”—a nation of 220 million people and a rebased GDP of $477 billion—yet we raced as a charity case, relying on the operational competence of the Germans to function.
There is a specific silence that falls when such a delegation enters a room in Brussels, Washington, or Beijing. It is the silence of patience—the kind reserved for a large, boisterous guest who has forgotten his wallet but still expects the best seat at the table. The paralysis in Paris was not an isolated administrative error. It is a feature of a diplomatic culture defined by the “estacode”—the lucrative per diems paid to officials for international travel. This incentive structure has turned Nigerian diplomacy into an extractive industry.
The data supports the indictment. In December 2023, at the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the Nigerian government registered a delegation of 1,411 people. At that precise moment, inflation in Lagos hovered near 28.9%, and the government was preaching austerity to a citizenry queuing for fuel. Yet, Nigeria tied with China for the third-largest delegation in the world, outnumbering the delegations of the United States and the United Kingdom combined.
The contrast in rigour was blinding. The Chinese delegation arrived with technical negotiators to secure photovoltaic supply chains and critical mineral rights. Nigeria arrived with a “jamboree” of aides, political patrons, and hangers-on. We possessed the headcount of a superpower and the strategic contribution of a spectator. The pattern repeated in September 2023 at the 78th UN General Assembly in New York. The Nigerian delegation was so bloated with “luggage officers” and non-essential staff that Manhattan hotels were overflowing with officials who had no accreditation to enter the UN headquarters. The spectacle was so fragrant that President Bola Tinubu was forced to issue a directive in January 2024, slashing future travel entourages by 60%. But directives are not systems. Without structural reform, the “estacode economy” will continue to cannibalize our national image. While nations like Rwanda dispatch lean, technocratic teams to sign specific trade deals, Nigeria dispatches carnivals to burn foreign reserves.
Nigeria’s fiscal reality reveals a humiliating contradiction. A nation that survives on the sweat of its diaspora — which sends home tens of billions of dollars every year to keep households afloat and stabilise national foreign exchange reserves — simultaneously burns public funds on estacode at a scale that is both opaque and unjustifiable. The officially reported estacode bill barely reaches a few million dollars, the true cost likely runs into the billions – yet it remains emblematic of a deeper institutional decay: a public sector that demands sacrifice from citizens while refusing to modernise its own travel culture, audit its allowances, or justify the returns on endless foreign trips. In a country where remittances exceed twenty billion dollars and function as an unofficial stabiliser of the economy, the failure to impose discipline on estacode spending is not merely wasteful — it is a moral indictment of governance itself and at worst an economic crime.
To fix this, we must abandon the performative mimicry of Western diplomacy. We do not need another “Vision 2050” document filled with buzzwords like “synergy.” We need to apply the principle of autochthony—institutional self-reliance. We must own our house. This requires a shift from Diplomacy as Patronage to Diplomacy as a Commercial Operation. The reforms must be surgical and immediate.
Firstly, we require a “Business Case” gatekeeper, as the current approval process for international travel is subjective and political. It must become algorithmic. No official—from a Minister to a Special Assistant—should step on a plane without a published Pre-Departure Memorandum (PDM). This document must explicitly list:
The specific meetings confirmed (not requested);
The projected “Return on Engagement” (ROE) in dollar terms or signed MoUs; and the minimum viable team required.
If a delegation cannot prove on paper that it will generate more value than the cost of its flight tickets and estacode, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must possess the statutory power to veto the trip.
Secondly, our embassies must now resume functioning as Trade Outposts, Not Sinecures. For too long, Nigerian embassies have functioned as retirement homes for political loyalists. This destroys institutional memory and capacity. We must convert every mission into a performance center. By Q3 2025, every embassy should be required to produce a quarterly scorecard tracking:
Non-oil trade volume facilitated;
Direct Foreign Investment (FDI) leads converted to site visits; and
Diaspora remittances channelled into productive investment vehicles.
Funding for missions must be conditional. If an embassy fails to meet its targets for two consecutive quarters, its budget is reduced. If a mission oversees a logistical disgrace—like the bicycle failure in Paris—the officials responsible are not “redeployed”; they are dismissed.
Thirdly, we require the institution of a temporary Sovereign Mission Management Council (SMMC) situated within the Presidency, as the fragmentation between the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Presidency creates the cracks through which 1,411 delegates slip – on one too many occasions. We need SMMC to coordinate high-value events (Olympics, UNGA, WEF). This council audits readiness several months in advance. It verifies that the ‘bicycles’ are bought, the hotel rooms are booked for essential staff only, and the technical papers are written. It ends the era of the “last-minute fire brigade.”
The world is not persuaded by our potential, which is cheap-speak. The world responds to performance – and every time a Nigerian athlete borrows a bike, or an official delegation floods a hotel lobby with idle aides, we pay a transaction cost. We increase the risk premium on every bond we issue and every contract we negotiate.
We have spent sixty-five years telling the world we are a Giant – and this is probably more factual than not in some respects within an African context. But as long as we rely on the Germans for our tools and the UAE for our venues, the world will see us for what we currently are: a Giant that refuses to grow up. It is time to fill the Global chair with competence, or lose the seat entirely.
About the Author:
Amofin Beulah Adeoye is a legal and financial expert with international recognition for his work in forensic accounting, governance, and philanthropy. A First Class Law graduate from the University of Ibadan and a certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA), he previously served as Financial Advisory Partner at Deloitte & Touche West Africa, where he led forensic services until his withdrawal in August 2024 to become active in political and community development efforts in Nigeria, for which he now has significant following and has received both local and international awards for his contributions. He maintains affiliations with multinationals across Europe, Asia, the US, and Africa spanning sectors such as healthcare, financial services, energy, logistics, and real estate. Adeoye is actively engaged with the Nigerian diaspora, and has facilitated strategic dialogues with community stakeholders across the globe and leads several philanthropic initiatives through the Beulah Adeoye Foundation.