The House of Representatives has started a move to prevent Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates from losing their jobs due to the diplomatic row between Nigeria and the Middle East country over COVID-19 tests for travellers.
At the plenary on Tuesday, the House mandated its relevant committees to “interface with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Aviation, National Intelligence Agency, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and the National Orientation Agency on best ways of resolving this crisis and report back to the house within four weeks.”
The Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, had moved a motion of urgent public importance titled ‘Need to intervene in the diplomatic row between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates,’ to warn that Nigerians are on the verge of being forced to vacate the Arabian country.
Elumelu, in the motion, noted that Nigeria and the UAE have had a positive diplomatic relationship, and in 2009 the UAE established its embassy in Nigeria.
He also noted that in December 2020, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Nigeria and the UAE to provide a platform for both countries to engage each other bilaterally.
The lawmaker recalled that in February, the Federal Government stopped the UAE’s national carrier, Emirates Airline, from subjecting Nigerian travellers to additional rapid antigen test for COVID-19, as against its stipulated negative PCR test at the Lagos and Abuja airports before departure.
He also recalled that Emirates Airline consequently shut down flights to and from Nigeria owing to the disagreement between the airline and the Nigerian aviation authorities on the propriety of subjecting passengers travelling from Nigeria to emergency COVID-19 protocols.
Elumelu said, “The House is concerned that after an interface between the authorities of the aviation ministry and Emirates Airline, flights resumed but the Emirates Airline continued to conduct test for passengers before departure from Nigeria, a development the Federal Government frowned at, and thus suspended the airline from flying to and from Nigeria.
“The House is further concerned that there are allegations that hundreds of legal resident Nigerians living in UAE are losing their jobs on account of the refusal of the authorities to renew their work permit, which offends the letters of bilateral agreements which both nations are signatory to.
“The House is worried that there are speculations that the refusal by the UAE authorities to renew work permit for Nigerians living there is a calculated attempt to pressure the Nigerian Government into accepting their conditions of service for their national airline that may have lost humongous revenue from the Nigeria route.”
The Senate also decided to wade into the dispute sequel to a point of order by the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, during plenary.
