FG to bring back wiling Nigerians from Abroad
Baring last minute’s hitches,
the protocols for evacuating Nigerians in the Diaspora have been completed. As
a result, the country was in a “stronger and better position” to bring
Nigerians interested in returning to the country back, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Mr. Geoffery Onyeama, has said.
The Minister stated this in
reaction to a question about letters and reports regarding Nigerians being
stuck outside the country during the daily briefings by the Presidential Task
Force on COVID-19.
He said, “We have started
to get greater number of Nigerians, especially in the United States, where
almost 200 have now indicated their willingness to return.”
“We are engaging with our
embassy in China and our High Commissioners in London and also in France to work
out all the logistics but things are now beginning to fall in place and we are
getting the sense of what needs to be done.”
It will be recalled that several
countries, including Canada, Israel, and the United States, have evacuated
citizens of different countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government has,
however, since announced plans to bring those interested in returning back and
asked its foreign missions to compile names.
“The evacuations had been
part of the government’s plans since the international airports were closed,” Mr
Onyeama said. He explained that the process was delayed to enable the
government sort out the logistics involved.
This is how he put it:
“The response is not as a result of letters or whatever that has been coming in
from Nigerians in the Diaspora as has been mentioned in some media houses but
actually something that was taken up by the task force right from the
beginning.
He added that at the beginning,
the country didn’t have all the isolation centres and all the other logistical
arrangements in place. So for that reason, he noted further, the authorities kept
it in abeyance while putting the necessary things in place.
“And now that we have all
those things in place, we are in a stronger and better position to bring
Nigerians outside the country back,” Onyeama said.
He directed all Nigerians
interested in returning back home to the country to work with Nigeria’s
embassies and High Commissions where they reside.
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