Onuesoke Seeks Location of Foreign Visa Offices to Other Parts of Nigeria

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

Former gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a chieftain of the party in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has appealed to foreign embassies in Nigeria to locate visa offices in other parts of Nigeria instead of Lagos and Abuja only.

Onuesoke in a statement issued in Warri yesterday, lamented that Nigerians, who are located in the northern and Niger Delta regions of Nigeria, who want to do business with the foreign embassies, are facing a lot of difficulties in accessing the embassies because of distance location.

He said in the course of trying to access the foreign embassies that are located at Abuja and Lagos, they risk their lives in travelling long distances and incurred a lot of expenses in term of hotel bills and other exigencies.

According to him, “For instance, Nigerians residing in the Niger Delta region, northern states and other parts of the country that are not close to Lagos or Abuja, where majority of the foreign embassies are located, find it difficult and inconvenient to do transaction in term of obtaining visa or transact other businesses because of the distance.

“They do not only risk their lives in travelling a long distance on dangerous roads or waterways, they spend a lot of money in transportation and hotel bills should they either go to Abuja or Lagos to the embassies. 

“Nigeria is a big country with large expanse of both land and water. For instance, someone who resides in Borno, Zamfara or Sokoto States in the North and Ijaw communities in Niger Delta riverine area will have to travel a long distance either through land or river to Lagos or Abuja before he or she could do any business with the foreign embassies. Besides, he or she will have to spend huge amount of money in hotel bills and other exigencies.”

The PDP chieftain argued that such inconveniences and expenses could be avoided if the foreign embassies establish offices as consulates in towns like in Gombe, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, Asaba, Warri and Calabar among others to make it easy for those residing in those areas to obtain visa or do business with them.

He stated that although it will cost the foreign countries more financially to expand, he, however, advised that big and wealthy countries like Germany, United Kingdom, United States, France and Japan, which have large business stakes in Nigeria, will benefit more should they spread their offices in Nigeria for convenience sake.