There was mild drama at Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Thursday after the Lebanese Amabassador to Nigeria walked out of a meeting targeted at addressing the harassment of Nigerian domestic workers in Lebabnon.
Houssam Diab shortly after entering the conference room for the meeting with the House Commitee on Diaspora walked out, leaving the lawmakers shocked in the process.
The ambassador reportedly stormed out at 10:50am because he expected a close door meeting with the lawmakers but met government officials and journalists, who were there to cover the event.
Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, Chairman of the committee, expressed shock over the incident.
Some lawmakers reportedly followed the ambassador to persuade him to return while the committee sent journalists, security personnel and legislative aides away from the venue.
After the meeting, Akande-Sadipe changed stance, saying, “It was an informal meeting because the ambassador was nice enough to join us at the meeting. There is no law that says he has to be here today but because he has an interest in the joint relationship between Nigeria and Lebanon.
“We have a lot of Nigerians in Lebanon and we have a lot of Lebanese in Nigeria. We have a relationship with Lebanon from the 50s.
“This meeting today has further reiterated that the Lebanese community and the Nigerian community always stand together to ensure that justice and respect for human lives is a priority, and we will work together to bring modern-day slavery to an end.”
