From AIDOGHIE PAULINUS, Abuja
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and his Interior Ministry counterpart, Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd), met Monday to resolve issues against prompt issuance of visa.
The development, according to Onyeama, was to find solution to the ease of doing business in the country.
The meeting also had in attendance, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
Also in attendance was the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mohammed Babandede, who was at the parley to give update on issues associated with issuance of visa.
Briefing journalists after the parley, Babandede said: “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was just educating Nigerians that if you apply for a Schengen visa, you need to have patience because a Schengen system is different. You have to wait for 14 days for the countries to time in.
“What we are saying is that we as a country, we would also like to retaliate. Anybody who delays visa for our nationals, we would also do the same as a country because we have pride as a nation.”
The immigration helmsman however said Nigeria is committed to ensure that business is done hitch-free with friends of Nigeria.
Babandede added: “But we are committed to make sure business is done smoothly to our best friends; we issue visa on time and passport to our nationals wherever they are.”
He however clarified that the federal government is not targeting any nation in the policy.
He stated: “Why should we target any country? Any country that does good to us, we do the same good to them. That is the issue. We have to wait.”
Speaking earlier, Onyeama noted that the nation was still having challenges regarding consular services.
Onyeama said the parley was to see how in conjunction with sister ministries, the nation could find solutions to the challenges.
Onyeama said: “As part of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, the issue, as you know, some of the deliverables are there and it is for consular services that we also have to work hard together.
“So, we’ve always felt that we should all try and be speaking to each other: the Ministry of Interior, Immigration Services and ourselves since our embassies and missions and consulates are all working other one roof. That is really what we want to try and push along.”
On his part, Dambazau reiterated that the issues were not new, saying that they had been on for a very long time even before the advent of the current administration.
Dambazau said: “One thing I observed is lack of coordination. Some of these issues, we cannot resolve them individually unless we come together to coordinate. And some of them require very firm decisions to be taken.
“The visa on arrival is our target as far as the presidential order on ease of doing business is concerned in particular. But there is so much that we need to do to sort out some of these problems,” Dambazau said.