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Federal Government’s Protest on Visa Restrictions for Nigerians Timely By Dr. Bello Umar
I wish to salute the courage of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for registering before Heads of Foreign Missions, Ambassadors and the Diplomatic Corps in Nigeria the displeasure of the federal government over unnecessary visa restrictions they put before prospective Nigerian travellers. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was precisely reported in July 7 issue of This Day saying to the Diplomats, “I view with great concern, difficulties put in the way of many bonafide Nigerian travellers, who are daily denied visas for reasons which are unclear and sometimes quite unsatisfactory.”
Indeed, I have facts to agree with the Minister for observing that the foreign missions deny visas to Nigerians for unclear and unsatisfactory reasons. One case I have in mind was that in which I was personally affected. I was a Fulbright Scholar in Iowa, USA in 2002-2003. I came back to Nigeria in 2003 as Sokoto state coordinator for a new youth exchange programme involving secondary students in Sokoto and Kaduna states. In the programme, which is owned and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, selected students are taken to Iowa to attend secondary schools for ten months. In appreciation of my effort of bringing the programme to Sokoto state, the state government in 2003 arranged to sponsor me to accompany the first batch of students to the U.S. However, I was not able to travel with the students because I was denied a visa by the U.S. Consulate without any explanations.
I still have another case to cite. This time it involved parents of two of the eleven Sokoto state students who were participating in the youth exchange programme in Iowa in 2004. The parents were sponsored by the Sokoto state government to visit their wards in Iowa and to see for themselves how the programme was going. Instead of the U.S. Consulate to complement the state government’s kind effort of supporting a U.S. programme, it denied the parents (one of them an Honourable member of Sokoto state House of Assembly) visas, again, for unclear reasons.
The issue of difficulties put in the way of Nigerian travellers by the Embassies as raised by the Minister is also an obvious fact. Many of us that are frequent travellers to different foreign countries know the difficulties Nigerians face in terms of visa requirements they are asked to meet by foreign consulates. For instance, to obtain an Indonesian visa, even for a short visit, a Nigerian must have, among others (1) a clearance certificate from the Nigerian Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (which takes at least three months to be approved and issued), (2) three guarantors who are frequent travellers to Indonesia and who are willing to give copies of their past Indonesian visas and their certificates of occupancy. In fact, due to difficulty in meeting the above stringent conditions, I almost personally missed an international conference in Bali last June if not for the intervention of the conference organisers who succeeded in obtaining on-arrival visa for me.
I also believe thousands of other Nigerians have several similar unpleasant stories to tell regarding difficulties they have been made to face in the process of applying for visas at the foreign consulates in the country. For example, it is an obvious fact that even in Africa, there is hardly any country where Nigerians are allowed to visit without a visa except, of course, countries that are members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In fact, Nigerians are not included among visitors that can be issued on-arrival visas by countries like Kenya, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco and South Africa (whose freedom from apartheid was ardently fought for by Nigeria).
Based on the foregoing discussion, I wish to strongly call on all Foreign Missions in Nigeria to positively review their visa requirements and related difficulties that serve as unnecessary impediments for Nigerians to obtain visas (including transit visas) of their countries. The drop-box technique, online bookings for visa applications as well as relaxed requirements applied to frequent travellers which were already introduced by some of the foreign consulates are laudable steps in this direction.
I am making the above plea while I am not oblivious of the fact that the conduct of some Nigerians at home and abroad has greatly contributed in making the Foreign Missions to be harsh on Nigerian visa applicants. And it is at this point that I will call on the Foreign Affairs Minister to join hands with agencies like the NDLEA, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Police, the Nigeria Airways Authority, the Custom Service and even foreign missions in the country to find better ways of detecting, arresting and punishing Nigerians with criminal dispositions who are trying to travel, or have travelled, overseas. On the part of government, it should develop and execute concrete policies that will create more and better jobs for Nigerians, address the problem of electricity supply, and provide better amenities as well as security that will make Nigerians to see staying and working in Nigeria more attractive than migrating overseas.
Dr. Bello Umar Farouk Jega Faculty of Agriculture, Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, bfumar@yahoo.com
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