CONFUSION REIGNS AFTER AU VISA ANNOUNCEMENT DENIED BY NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT
(Posted 17th October 2017)
The announcement made by the Nigerian Ambassador to the African Union in Addis Ababa, subsequently hailed as a massive breakthrough by the pan African organization, has now been put into doubt when other government sources in Abuja denied that such an agreement was reached.
Whether this is a case of the left not knowing what the right is doing may be debatable but given the AU’s commitment – Nigeria did sign on to the measure – to create a pan African passport making travel of African citizens easier must this now we do and now we don’t kind of story detrimental to the spirit of the resolution.
According to AU information do Africans, when they travel outside their respective trade blocs like the East African Community, ECOWAS and SADC, need Visa when the travel across the continent, prompting Africa’s leading entrepreneur Dangote to decry that he required over 30 Visa to just visit countries where he has investments in.
Presently is Seychelles the only member country of the AU without any Visa requirements whatsoever while Rwanda and since then Ghana have decided to issue Visa on arrival to citizens of African Union member states.
The now in doubt measure was widely reported around the globe and even found its way into the Washington Post and was then rebroadcast on the Corporate Council on Africa daily news service before the denial from Abuja rained on the party.
