The latest exemption of Nigeria from the list of countries that should henceforth enjoy access to five year tourist visa announced by the United Arab Emirates Authorities (UAE) has continued to generate mixed feelings amongst stakeholders in the aviation sector.
Some of the commenters who spoke at different fora on the unpalatable news have unanimously accused the UAE authorities of intentionally being rigid towards Nigeria despite the efforts already put in by President Bola Tinubu personally to wade into the communication breakdown between the two countries.
While some of the key players who spoke to Safealtitude.com, urged the federal government to without delay call the bluff of UAE over what they described as the deliberate attempt to humiliate the country and its citizens by refusing to honour the efforts of President Tinubu having personally visited the country to prevail on the.UAE to give peace a chance after two years of diplomatic row, others have attributed the unyielding position of UAE to the alleged misdemeanours of some Nigerians who reside in the Arab country.
Speaking on the stalemate, a former military commandant at the Murtala Muhammed International airport, Group Captain John Ojikutu, retired, wondered if President Tinubu had been appropriately briefed by the relevant ministries of government on why the UAE government has continued to refuse to appreciate his efforts on the moves made to have the diplomatic issues resolved.
Calling on the Ministry of Trade instead of Aviation to urgently wade into the crisis, Ojikutu also suggested that the violation of the laws of the UAE by Nigerian in the foreign country may have angered the UAE government, a situation that could have led to the blacklisting of Nigeria.
His words: “There have been reports about Nigerians that have violated their visa entitlements. Those with transit visas have melted into the country. Those with residential visas have turned criminals and are in jail for various offences that include drug trafficking. The far East countries are the major outbound/inbound routes for drug trafficking into Nigeria mainly. A 2010 report has it that 70% of the drugs that enters US through Europe come from Nigeria. The UAE and its Airlines may want to get itself out of the calculations of Middle East/Eastern Airlines for Drugs Trafficking. My takes. I hope these are sufficient?
“In addition, UAE has more than three types of visas which only the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the airlines on the BASA Routes can interpret for passengers travelling to the UAE or transiting the country. You can carry passengers visiting or permanently living in the country on one flight and carry transiting passengers in other flights if you are a regular airline to the country. However, you must avoid carrying transiting passengers with the other categories otherwise, you create insiders threats for the country. That was the first test for Air Peace which the Foreign Affairs Ministry should have briefed the Airline. Again, BASA is not meant for the Aviation Ministry alone to implement but it is also meant for the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministries to participate as at when due.
“I am not sure that the President is given the right information about the reason why his gestures towards the UAE are yielding no results. Take the issue of BASA and the trapped funds: BASA is not only about commercial aviation but also about Trades and Foreign Affairs between the countries. Four ministers/Ministries are necessarily involved in the signing of the BASAs, Aviation, Foreign Affairs, Trade and Justice. How many of these got to know about the problems we have with countries in our BASA relationships?
“The issue of trapped monies should never arise between us and the foreign airlines that pay in Dollars for the services provided to them by our aviation services providers. Annually, the average amount paid these services providers is not less than $2bn. In 2007, President Olusegun Obasanjo directed that this money should be domiciled in the CBN for any external aviation requirements. This amount does not include payments on BASA inbalance nor the monies on Commercial Agreements with the foreign airlines doing multiple destinations and multiple frequencies. When you add all these monies together, it is huge and criminal for the responsible authorities in Aviation to be giving excuses of lack of forex. It’s nothing but INSTITUTIINAL CORRUPTIONS. Is the Ministry of Trade aware of this is what the President should find out. BASA is about Reciprocity: l pay you for whatever I buy in dollars, you pay me in dollars for whatever I sell to you. Nigerians pay in naira for tickets sold to them by the foreign airlines but our government must ensure that the airlines get that money in TRADING exchanged for the airlines by the CBN.
Unlike others, the leadership of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Mrs Susan Akporiaye in her remarks called on the Nigerian government to pay the UAE back in its coins by applying the law of reciprocity to also let them know Nigeria can equally exist without them.
“I’m sure there are other places Nigeria can look up to. The law of reciprocity should come in, if they are refusing to give us visa, we too should not give them visa. I don’t know if they have been doing that, if they are not they should. The law of reciprocity should come to play, we need to let hem know that, I don’t want to use some words here because I’m on air, honestly we need to call their bluff. We are still surviving since they shut their country against us. One man’s food is another man’s poison like they say, UAE shut down on us and it became a blessing forEgypt and Morocco to the extent that they are now coming to establish their tourism here,they are now serious about growing a relationship with Nigeria, they have seen the opportunity of having relationship with Nigeria, they have seen the opportunity the relationship with Nigeria has brought to their economies, they have seen all that and that’s why they are opening their doors, so if the UAE feels it’s okay they no longer want to have anything to do with Nigeria, please let’s stop patronizing them rather than give them opportunities to embarrass us like this and that’s my take.
“The federal government should move on, whatever it is they want to do in the UEA, let them look for it in other counties, let us move on. And for Nigerians for crying out loud, let us move to other destinations, Qatar has opened up, Morocco, Egypt has opened up likewise so many other African countries are opening up. Why are we crying over spilled milk, they don’t want us, must we force ourselves on them? If they don’t want us to come, we too must not allow them come to Nigeria. We may not be as good as they are, I agree but we should have our self respect. When one door closes other doors are opening on a daily basis, let the law of reciprocity be applied and Nigeria should wake up to reality. That’s the way I see it.”