The Federal Government will begin the evacuation of roughly 2,000 Nigerians fleeing the Ukraine war to neighboring nations on Wednesday.
In an interview with Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today,’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama announced that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd. ), has sanctioned monies for the airlines to evacuate Nigerians.
When asked if there were roughly 2,000 evacuees and when the evacuation would happen, he responded, “Hopefully Wednesday… Max Air and Air Peace.”
Russia, Ukraine War: Nigeria Govt Summon Country Ambassadors
He said that there were roughly 8,000 Nigerians in Ukraine, with 5,000 of them being students, and that the Federal Government had advised Air Peace and Air Max to airlift the Nigerians who needed to be evacuated.
“We made Romania the center,” Onyeama said earlier in a briefing to the House of Representatives on the evacuation operations. “Over a thousand Nigerians have crossed there.”
There are roughly 250 in Poland, a comparable number in Budapest, Hungary, and Slovakia is fast growing.
It’s also in the 200s. Some Nigerians live near the Russian border in a town named Sumy.
“I’ve made contact with the ambassador. We’ve asked the Russian ambassador to attempt to acquire a permit for them to travel to Russia, and maybe by Wednesday we’ll be deploying planes to start bringing the Nigerians in,” the minister added.
Onyeama maintained that it was not the Federal Government’s exclusive responsibility to rescue Nigerians stuck overseas because this was not a common practice throughout the world.
He believes that people who travel overseas with their own money should be permitted to come home on their own.
Russia And Ukraine War: Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich Wade In To Resolve Crisis
He recalled several Nigerians who gladly traveled to Russia for the World Cup last year but were unable to return home due to a lack of funds.
According to the ministry, President Muhammadu Buhari has authorised a flight to return them to Nigeria.
Onyeama revealed that family members of Nigerian diplomats stationed in Ukraine had been evacuated, and that the diplomats themselves will be evacuated soon.
He further added that four to five planes had been obtained to transport Nigerians from Ukraine’s neighboring countries.
Onyeama explained that Nigerian diplomats in Ukraine were the ones who convinced the Nigerian government that Russia would not invade, unlike the United States, which had encouraged its nationals to leave Ukraine almost a week before the Russian assault.
No one could have predicted that Vladmir Putin would order his troops to attack Ukraine just days after claiming to have withdrawn them from the border, he claimed.
Meanwhile, Onyeama met with the leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday.
Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, in his opening remarks, while noting that he was aware that the Nigerian Government was making efforts to rescue citizens from Ukraine, said there were reports that Nigerians are facing difficulty with exiting the country for the neighbouring countries.
Ukraine President, Zelensky Release Prisoners To Fight Russia
Gbajabiamila also disclosed that the House was already in talks with a Nigerian airline, Air Peace, in its efforts to evacuate Nigerians from Ukraine.
He said, “For the House, one day is a day too long in terms of delay. We just want to hear from you and see if we can keep this thing moving. The Leader of the House (Alhassan Ado-Doguwa), together with the Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman (Yakub Buba), to also follow up; and if need be, get on the plane just to basically supervise and make sure that our citizens who we represent – irrespective of what anybody says out there; who are calling us (in the) morning, afternoon, night.
“This will be a kind of morale booster; to let them know that they have not been forgotten…to go with you (and see) if we can quickly address this situation and get the planes out there and make sure that our students – our citizens – are brought back.
“They (Ado-Doguwa and Buba) are still here. As of the time when the House made that resolution, it was shortly after that that we found out that Ukraine’s airports had been closed. But I believe the border states – Poland and the rest of them…their borders are open. Visas have been obtained, from what I heard, or they have been given automatic (humanitarian) visas.”
Responding, Onyeama agreed with Gbajabiamila that “this is a whole-of-government issue.” According to him, the government is concerned like every Nigerian.
JUST IN: FIFA, UEFA Suspend Russian National Team, Football Clubs
The minister said in part, “I will say that 80 to 90 per cent of peoples and countries did not believe that the Russians could invade (Ukraine). We were in touch with our Ambassador there. I was on the phone with him almost every day. I said to him, ‘Should we start evacuating?’ He said, ‘No, everything is perfectly calm. Life is going on as normal and there is no need to panic and start evacuating.’
“Some days later, I would go back to him almost every day and there was a BBC programme where they interviewed Nigerian students; the students said that everything was normal in Kiev and other parts (of Ukraine) and they did not even know that there was a problem. That was the situation.
“Also, the Ukrainian Government did not want people to panic; they wanted to show that the situation was normal; they did not want people to start leaving, and so forth.”
The minister said when Russia moved into Ukraine and attacked the country, “it took everybody by surprise.” He added that the first thing he did was to get in touch with the Nigerian Ambassador and the Nigerians in Ukraine, while a hotline was set up with the Nigerian Embassy.
Onyeama also disclosed that the Nigerian Government was in touch with the Ukrainian authorities with the hope of going into the country immediately and start evacuating Nigerians. “But of course, the Russians attacked some airfields and the airspace was closed. That was not an option at all,” he stated.
According to the minister, the Nigerian Embassy “did very well; they really did extremely well.”
Russia And Ukraine War: 50 Nigerians Escape To Hungary (Video)
Onyeama also noted that both Ukrainians and non-citizens, including Nigerians, started moving towards the borders after the attack.
He said, “There are about 5,600 Nigerians there and maybe a total of about 8,000 Nigerians in Ukraine. Because there are a number of borders around Ukraine; Ukraine is the second largest country geographically and in land mass, in Europe; so it is a big country.”
Onyeama further disclosed that the ambassadors of the countries bordering Ukraine had been ordered to send officials to the borders to receive migrating Nigerians, noting that the Nigerians who were resident in the neighbouring countries had been helpful in receiving their countrymen.
“As you rightly said, we were in touch with the Chairman of Air Peace. At the time, he indicated that he had two planes (Boeing) 777 and an Airbus ready to go and I asked him if he would like to go today – Monday. But of course, we had to see Mr. President very quickly.
“Last week, I went and saw him (together) with the Chief of Staff (Ibrahim Gambari) and he approved that we should go ahead with an airlift. So, we negotiated with Air Peace and asked the ambassadors in those countries to give us an exact figure or at least an approximate figure of Nigerians who have made it to their respective countries, so we could decide on how to go and pick them up.
Trump Reveals How Westerners Aid Putin, Calls Russian President ‘Smart’
“The latest we heard was that Monday would not be feasible. So, we have tentatively fixed Wednesday. The idea is Romania; it is going to be the hub and there are about a thousand already that we have estimated to pick up from Romania; then, we have Slovakia with about 200; Poland also about 250; and Hungary with the same figure. But about 150 wanting to go through Russia, we have asked the ambassador to get a permit for them.”
Follow us on Facebook
Post Disclaimer
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author and forum participants on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Anaedo Online or official policies of the Anaedo Online.