Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika has asserted that the Federal Government has no problem with the UAE’s decision to arbitrarily revoke visas of Nigerians and cancel their visa applications without refund.
Mr Sirika said the UAE lacked legitimate grounds to threaten Nigeria with the visa ban. He said this even though Nigeria failed 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,” said Mr Sirika said on Monday.
“Every country would threaten Nigeria that they would not fly to Nigeria again, that 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,” Mr Sirika added.
