Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Sunday Steve Karimi, has expressed appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the nomination of Ambassador Audu-Rafiu Olusola Enikanolaiye as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. The 66-year-old Foreign Minister of State-designate hails from Igbagun in Yagba East Local Government Area of Kogi State.
Karimi in a statement signed by Toye Ibitoye, his senior legislative aide, noted that the President has once again prioritised professionalism and merit in his choice of aides to help drive the policy direction of his administration, a preference which has dominated his approach to governance over several decades.
According to Karimi, who chairs the Senate Committee on Services, “I find it germane, even expedient to appreciate His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, for nominating Ambassador Audu-Rafiu Olusola Enikanolaiye, as Minister of State designate for Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Enikanolaiye is not only from Kogi West Senatorial Zone, whose good people have accorded me the opportunity to serve them, but he is easily one of Nigeria’s most grounded diplomats of all time.”
Continuing, Karimi noted: “I will yet come to other details about the pointed suitability of Ambassador Enikanolaiye for this office, but I must note that Mr President’s choice on this occasion is consistent with his career preference for competence and cognate experience in the appointment of his aides. I can only express the collective appreciation of our people across the seven local government areas that make up our senatorial district.”
Further still, Senator Karimi noted that President Tinubu has chosen a diplomat “who inhales and exhales diplomatic practice, in a career which has transcended four decades.” He alluded to Enikanolaiye’s illustrious career, which began in August 1982, when he was appointed “Foreign Service Officer VII” by the administration of former President Shehu Usman Shagari, GCFR. Ambassador Enikanolaiye subsequently attained the very peak of his career when he was appointed substantive Ambassador in 2013 by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, and thereafter Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.
Karimi noted that very instructively, Ambassador Enikanolaiye was pulled out of retirement by President Tinubu, who appointed him Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Foreign Affairs, from which office he was elevated Minister. He applauded him for distinguishing himself in his lifelong foreign service career, where he has built a reputation as a human encyclopedia. He commended him for building upon the legacies of older diplomats from Kogi West, including Ambassadors Olayinka Olasehinde Simonyan, John Kayode Sinkaiye, Edward Aina, Joseph Jaiyeola Lewu, Babatunde Paul Fadumiyo, Rotimi Akenson, not forgetting Yahaya Shuaib, Bako Adamu Umar, among others from the same senatorial zone.
Ambassador Enikanolaiye earned a First Class degree with honours in Political Science from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, in 1981, and posted a Distinction upon completing his Master of International Law and Diplomacy (MILD), from the University of Lagos in 1991. Months earlier, he also earned a Distinction in the Postgraduate Programme in Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford in 1991. He is a recipient of multiple scholarships and awards at home and abroad and is happily married and blessed with four children. His foreign service trajectory has taken him through responsibilities in Ethiopia, Serbia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India, apart from postings to the headquarters of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the State House, Abuja.
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