Nigeria’s Dilemma over UAE

Chinedu Eze

There are two issues the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has against Nigeria. One, Nigeria has been unable to provide it dollars so that Emirates Airlines can repatriate the revenues it earned from its operations in Nigeria and two; records indicate that many Nigerians who travel to the Middle East nation engage in crimes.

The chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa on Wednesday confirmed the allegation of crime on Twitter when she responded to @segalink who observed, “Told them this and they refused to listen. Predicted the current UAE policy earlier after the disgraceful trajectory of most of our people on foreign soil. They don’t like taking responsibility and would always want to blame someone else for their personal failings.”

Dabiri-Erewa in her verified Twitter account, @abikedabiri, responded, “Unfortunately, the sad reality is that our crime rate over there is one of the highest!”

Reports also indicate that Nigerian rich have made huge investment, especially in real estate in UAE, so Nigerians will feel it more if UAE decides to permanently shut down diplomatic relations with Nigeria.

In the last two years Nigeria and UAE had engaged in dogged diplomatic impasse, which climaxed in the suspension of Emirates flights to Nigeria. This was followed by the inability of Nigeria to provide dollars to Emirates and other foreign carriers to repatriate their earnings in Nigeria.

In the area of crime, UAE has forced Nigerians out of the country, prompting the federal government at different times to send airplanes to evacuate the citizens back to the country. The acme of the criminal acts was when eight Nigerians were sentenced to death in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates for a string of robberies at money exchanges and cash machines (ATMs) across the emirate in December 2016.

This was followed by the action of some Nigerians believed to be members of Eiye and Aiye cult groups, armed with cutlasses and fighting on the streets of Ajman, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

This also prompted UAE authorities to impose visa restrictions on Nigerians after the cult clashes. The Middle East nation decided to issue visa to restrict the age of Nigerians that would be given visa; that anyone travelling alone to UAE must be 40 years and above but those with family could be from 36 years and above. UAE authorities started encouraging family tourism; that it is easier for a family to obtain visa and travel to any destination in UAE. Some Nigerians, reports indicated, began to circumvent this regulation by obtaining visa for family visit and travelling alone and in reaction, UAE would detain such passengers on arrival.

It has been observed, however, that instead of following the right diplomatic channels, UAE adopted the style of using travel agents to enforce travel ban against Nigerians, a policy those in the diplomatic circles said underscores the contempt they have for Nigeria.

Last week it was Destination Management Companies (DMCs) licenced by UAE authorities to issue electronic visas to travellers into the country that disclosed that visa to Nigerians had been banned.

Not so sure of what UAE had done, President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Susan Akporiaye, told THISDAY that although DMCs notified the travel agents that UAE was no more issuing visas to Nigerians, no document from UAE or its immigration officials had confirmed the stoppage of visa issuance.

“Our partners who are travel agents in UAE sent us this information, nothing has come officially from UAE and people are still travelling,” she said.

Reacting to the ban, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, obviously erupted in anger, saying, “We are not afraid to be shut. It would make us do much better. It would make our schools and hospitals do better.”

Sirika said on Monday that there were no grounds for the UAE to threaten Nigeria with the visa ban despite Nigeria failing to repatriate $700 million trapped funds of foreign airlines. 

 “If you disagree, you are supposed to come to us, and we sit down, and we negotiate and give you what we have in the hope that we finish paying. What I have a problem with are the threats,” he said.

He also observed, “Every country would threaten Nigeria that they would not fly to Nigeria again, that they would not give Nigeria visa. They would not do operations; they would shut Lagos and Abuja. Please, countries have been shut completely, and they did well. We are not afraid to be shut. It would make us do much better. It would make our schools and hospitals do better because necessity is the mother of invention.

“We would begin to go to our own hospitals and our schools. When you stop coming to Nigeria, it does not make any sense. We are not threatened. When you stopped operating to Nigeria, a 200 million market, which you need, you do not have a case. And I have a problem with that. I have been doing everything to ensure this is paid. But you can only give what you have,” the Minister said.

In the area of crime, the immediate past President of NANTA, and the Group Managing Director, Finchglow Holdings, Mr. Bankole Bernard, also said that prostitutes and fraudsters known as Yahoo Yahoo boys have invaded Dubai and UAE authorities are doing everything possible to keep them away from the country, hence the visa restrictions.

 “These fraudsters, known as Yahoo, Yahoo boys have found out that doing their illicit business in Nigeria has become difficult because when they send you message and you look at their IP address (that is Internet Protocol, which identifies a device on the Internet), they will know you are writing from Nigeria, so they will ignore the letter.

“So, some of these fraudsters relocated to Dubai and write letters with UAE IP address, which is bereft of suspicion. So once it is Dubai you are writing from, the recipient will respond. There are a lot of Nigerian prostitutes in Dubai. This is why UAE does not want to give Nigerians under 40 years visas and they also preferred that you come with your family. UAE prisons are full with Nigerians, not just Igbos or Yorubas, Nigerians from all tribes. So they don’t want these criminal activities to continue in their country. So, until we, as a nation, begins to reposition ourselves, Nigerian citizens will continue to have this kind of problems,” Bernard said.