A former member of the House of Representatives, Robinson Uwak has said President Bola Tinubu move to resolve the dispute between Nigeria and the UAE’s Emirate Airline and its visa issuance is a step in the right direction.
He stated this while commending the president on his recent pledge to resolve the aviation dispute.
In October 2022, the Emirates Airline suspended its operations in Nigeria over the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s lack of approval for the repatriation of backlog of funds accruing to its operations in the country.
On August 25, President Tinubu, while receiving the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi in Abuja, promised to intervene and amicably resolve the impasse.
“We must work together. We need to agree on core aviation and immigration issues,” Tinubu was quoted in a statement by his media aide, Ajuri Ngelale.
In the same statement, Al-Shamsi was quoted as saying; “We are getting somewhere. These are small issues, all within a family, and they will be resolved.”
However, Uwak said President Tinubu’s intervention would reopen that corridor for Nigerians, who usually visit UAE for business and leisure and deepen the cooperation between both nations.
With reference to the reports that Nigerians spend an estimated N3.3 billion weekly ($381m per year) on flights to the UAE (with Emirates Airlines, the UAE flag carrier, having the lion’s share of that amount), Uwak said the two countries ought to sustain their cooperation.
He said, “Nigeria as a leading market in Africa should have equal access to the other big markets in the globe for trade and investment and leisure activities.”
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