Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has called for an immediate resolution to disagreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which have hampered travel and the issuance of visas.
Following the Emirates airline’s suspension of service because it was unable to repatriate money from the West African nation of Nigeria due to forex restrictions, the UAE stopped issuing visas to Nigerians last year.
After “making considerable efforts to initiate dialogue with the relevant authorities,” Emirates stated at the time that it had failed to find a workable solution.
The Nigerian president on Thursday stated that the issue needed to be resolved “immediately” and added that he was prepared to “personally” intervene in the matter.
“We should look at the issues as a family problem, and resolve it amicably… We must work together. We need to agree on core aviation and immigration issues,” he said.
He spoke as he welcomed Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi, the UAE ambassador, to the state house in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
In addition to stating that “these are small issues, all within a family, and they will be resolved”, Mr. Al-Shamsi said that he had been working on 24 agreements with the Nigerian government.
Source-BBC
