The Nigerian Presidency says the lifting of the visa ban on Nigerians by the United Arab Emirates doesn’t mean that things will go back as they used to, especially as it concerns UAE visa applications and processing.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, moments after the deal between President Bola Tinubu and his UAE counterpart Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan public, Media aide to the President, Ajuri Ngelale said things will be done differently to address some loopholes that caused the visa ban.
“Every agreement comes with mutual responsibility. There is no free lunch. What I mean by that is the notion that floodgates will open up and we go back to business as usual. That is not what Nigerians should expect. I want to be very clear about this so that everybody can understand,” Ngelale said.
Speaking further, he noted that “one of the major challenges of the bilateral relationship with regards to visa applications, visa processing and with respect to Nigerians being able to migrate to the UAE for example, was the fact that there was a laxity on the part of certain visa process or certain applications that were being made that it created a lack of specificity and lack of diligent evaluation with respect to who is travelling to the UAE and why they are travelling.
“And this is why we had issues. Just a few bad eggs among our people giving a bad name to all of us which was a major sticking point as to how we got to this point. So, what we have done as part of this process is to put in place measures to ensure there is effective diligence done on the part of both sides.”
President Bola Tinubu and his United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met in Abu Dhabi, on Tuesday and sealed a historic agreement, which resulted in the immediate cessation of a visa ban placed on Nigerian travellers by the UAE authorities.
By the agreement, both Etihad Airlines and Emirates Airlines were to resume flights into and out of Nigeria without delay. These were disclosed in a statement by Tinubu’s spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale.
But, in a statement on its website on the diplomatic meeting, Emirates News Agency, UAE’s official news agency, did not mention anything about the lifting of visa ban on Nigerians as well as flight resumption. The agency only noted that the UAE president and Tinubu explored opportunities for further bilateral collaboration in areas that served both countries’ sustainable economic growth, including the economic, development, energy, and climate action fields.
Emirates News Agency stated, “The two sides also exchanged views on a number of regional and international developments of interest. The meeting discussed the upcoming COP28 climate conference set to take place in the UAE later this year, with both parties stressing the vital importance of encouraging and enabling international cooperation to tackle global issues, including climate change.”
UAE had in October 2023 banned nationals of some 20 African countries, including Nigeria, from entering its city, Dubai. In a notice issued to trade partners, including travel agents, the UAE authorities had directed that all applications should be rejected from Nigeria and the aforementioned countries.
Last December, also, Emirates Airlines had suspended flight operations to Nigeria over its inability to repatriate blocked funds, which was then estimated at $85 million. Etihad Airlines had also stopped flights to Nigeria.
The sour relations between both countries had earlier seen Emirates Airlines suspending its operations to Nigeria on December 13, 2021, in reaction to Nigeria’s federal government’s withdrawal of the carrier’s flight frequencies, except one, to Nigeria. The UAE was the first to reduce Air Peace request for three weekly flights to one, and had claimed it did not have enough slots for the airline.
Emirates had said it would discontinue flight service to Nigeria until both countries reached amicable resolution on the matter.
However, the statement by Ngelale, yesterday, explained that following negotiation between Tinubu and the UAE leader, there would be immediate restoration of flight activity through the two airlines between both countries. But this did not involve any immediate payment by the Nigerian government, the statement said.
According to the presidential spokesman, in recognition of Tinubu’s economic development diplomacy drive and proposals presented by the president to his UAE counterpart, an agreed framework was established, which would involve several billions of United States dollars’ worth of new investments in the Nigerian economy across multiple sectors, including defence, agriculture, and others, by the investment arms of the government of UAE.
In addition, the statement revealed that Tinubu successfully negotiated a joint new foreign exchange (forex) liquidity programme between the two governments, details of which would be announced in the coming weeks.
Tinubu also commended the UAE president for his friendship and determined effort to join hands with him to fully normalise and reset to excellence relations between the two frontline nations.