Ajuri Ngelali, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on media and publicity, has said that the reversal of the visa ban on Nigerians by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) does not mean that they can immediately travel to the UAE.
According to him, the lifting of the ban doesn’t make things go back to “business as usual”, especially as it concerns UAE visa applications and processing.
Recall that on Monday, September 11, President Tinubu had visited the President of the UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to discuss the diplomatic row between both countries.
Ajuri later released a statement saying the UAE government has immediately reversed the visa ban on Nigerians. Many Nigerians were excited and some immediately began planning when to visit the country.
In an interview with Channels TV last night, Ajuri said every agreement comes with mutual responsibility, adding that there is no free lunch anywhere.
“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.
“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 processes 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.”
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