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The recent lifting of the visa ban on Nigerian passport holders by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was overdue. This took effect from July 15, 2024. The UAE had imposed a visa ban on Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo in December 2021 due to alleged surge in COVID-19 pandemic from passengers of the two countries. The Middle Eastern country also imposed another visa ban on Nigeria and about 19 other African countries in October 2022. Among other reasons, some nationals of these African countries were accused of constituting unrest in UAE through cultism and other illegal activities.
Besides, Emirates had suspended its flight operations to Nigeria following the inability of Nigeria to remit about $85 million in revenue to the UAE due to dollar shortages. Not even the plea by former President Muhammadu Buhari in February 2023 could move the UAE to lift the visa ban. Buhari had assured that he had given instructions to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to increase the amount of foreign exchange allocation to Emirates Airlines. Last year, President Bola Tinubu met with his UAE counterpart, President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi, in furtherance of the moves to lift the visa ban. In June 2024, the Nigerian government was able to pay 98 per cent of the $85 million.
It is worthy to note that many Nigerians take Dubai as their second home. Some even have properties there. A good number of others hold their meetings there. For many others, the UAE is an excellent destination for vacation and shopping. The Emirates Airlines reaped bountifully from the patronage of Nigerians.
Nevertheless, a few fraudsters and criminally-minded Nigerians also found the UAE a veritable place to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth. Some of them had also been arrested in the UAE for sundry crimes, including cyber fraud. This was partly why a Dubai recruitment firm, Shirley Recruitment Consultants Dubai, posted a job opening online for Africans in 2020 but excluded Nigerians.
The UAE is not the only country where Nigerians are viewed with suspicion. In many other countries, especially in Europe and North America, every Nigerian is seen as a criminal until proved otherwise. They are selected for thorough searching at the airports and other points of entry around the world.
Even African countries don’t spare Nigerians. On many occasions, Nigerians became object of attacks in some of these African countries. They have suffered xenophobic attacks in South Africa since 1998. In 2018, some Nigerians lost their lives to xenophobic attacks in Hillbrow, Central Johannesburg, South Africa. Earlier last year, some 16 Nigerian Muslim pilgrims travelling to Senegal were attacked and killed in Burkina Faso by some gunmen.
Nigerians have faced discrimination, harassment, intimidation, extortion, torture and threats to their lives even in Ghana and some other West African countries. In 2019, Ghana Union of Traders (GUTA) reportedly shut down about 1,000 Nigerian shops. It got to a point in 2020, a certain Osu family in Ghana demolished an official building on the premises of the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, claiming ownership of the land.
We blame our leaders partly for the trauma many Nigerians pass through in foreign lands. If the situation at home is conducive, Nigerians will not migrate to other countries for greener pastures. No country is a bed of roses. But many of our compatriots are deceived into selling all they have in order to get visa and travel abroad. Reality dawns on many of them when they eventually discover that it is not all el dorado outside here. Confused and dejected, many of them resort to crime to make ends meet, thereby bringing bad name to the country.
If the condition at home is conducive, our people will not be leaving the country in droves to get humiliated outside. It behoves on our present leaders to make a clean departure from the past and abide by their oath to work for a better society.
We commend the government of the UAE for lifting the visa ban and urge Nigerians to reciprocate the gesture by observing the laws of their host country. We should not give room for any negative action against Nigerians anymore because not all Nigerians are bad. Nigerians are the most educated immigrants in the US. There are many others who have been commended for their exemplary conduct and honesty in different parts of the world. Nigeria is an important country in Africa and whatever that is needed to ensure that it maintains a positive status in the world must be done.
