The withdrawal of e-visa and visa on arrival from Nigerian passport holders by Turkey, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has continued to elicit mixed reactions from key players in the aviation sector.
While some have linked the latest actions of the three countries to the probable misbehaviour of some Nigerians who are in the minority, others are of the opinion that the withdrawal of such privileges has not totally stopped Nigerian passport holders from travelling to the countries.
Speaking to Nigerian Tribune, the Managing Director of Centurion Aviation Security, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd), traced the development to three factors ranging from bad behaviours of some Nigerians when they are outside the country to the hardships forcing Nigerians to stay behind in such countries when their visas expired and their involvement in crimes such as drug trafficking.
Ojikutu said: “The home countries of these airlines are not necessarily destinations for Nigerians but transiting countries. One or two things could be the reasons. Some Nigerians are generally known for bad behavior, especially outside our country and not many countries can tolerate this in transit or within.
“Secondly, while the Nigerian passengers would have booked the countries as transit, they could have melted away into the countries. We are familiar with cases of drug trafficking through the middle and far East; the three airlines could be the favourites of the traffickers. Ethiopian Airlines, for more than five decades, have been noted as a transiting plane for Nigerian drug traffickers. There is need to change the scenarios and the denial of the previous privileges is the beginning.”
Speaking on the issue, the immediate past president of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agents (NANTA), Mrs Susan Akporiaye, said what the countries, especially Turkey, did by withdrawing the e-visa and visa on arrival from Nigerian passport holders was to deny them the hitherto convenience of acquiring Turkish visa through online arrangements.
Akporiaye said: “Taking away e-visa or visa on arrival from Nigerian passport holders does not mean we cannot go into such country; that is the case of Turkey. E-visa for Turkey from the beginning had conditions tie to it, e-visa/visa on arrival is e-visa because when you get there you have to apply online and you will now get the e-visa. It has some conditions tied to it from the beginning, it wasn’t that it was an open thing for all Nigerian passport holders, no.
“The conditions were that you must have either a UK visa, an American visa, or a Shanghai visa or a Canadian visa. You must have any of these visas before you qualify to do an e-visa. So, it wasn’t like an open thing for Nigerians right from beginning, it has been like that.
“It does not mean you cannot go to Turkey. The case of Turkey is different from UAE, it does not mean you cannot go to Turkey, just that the convenience of you just applying online without any documentation has been removed. The only documentation before was your UK, US or Canadian visa. You have to now go to the embassy and start filling forms and submitting documents before you can get your Turkish visa, so there is no ban on Nigerians, they just stopped the convenience.”
The travel expert said Nigerians have nothing to lose from the ban unlike Turkey that will experience reduction in the traffic of Nigerians who are known to spend money on shopping and relaxation while transiting from Turkey to places like America, Asia and Europe.
She said: “The implication of that is that it is going to reduce traffic to the country. That one is for sure because I for one, except its totally necessary, I am not going to go through that stress of filling form and documentation for Turkey, no. I can only go through if for other countries and not Turkey; it is not worth it for me and their visa fee is annoyingly very expensive, about $200, $300 or $400. With the exchange rate, it is about N200,000, N400,000 or N500,000 just to get visa. That is ridiculous, that is too expensive.
“The implication of that is that it is going to reduce traffic into the country and for the Turkish airline. You know when they have this e-visa thing there was a lot of patronage for Turkish airlines, people who want to go to US will use Turkish Airlines and do a stopover of two or three days, break their journey because US is very far, break their journey two, three days, do electronic visa and spend two, three days in Turkey, accommodation would be used, feeding and tours also, transport and others will be utilized. That is money spent in Turkey and that is not their final destination; it is just an add up for them and that is just because of the ease of obtaining Turkish visa.
“Now that there is no ease of obtaining the visa, those who used Turkish Airlines to get to America, Asia and other countries and make a stopover just to rest a bit before continuing their journey are not going to make use of Turkish Airlines anymore because it doesn’t have any advantage anymore if they are going to go through the stress of putting their documentations together, filling forms, going to the embassy and paying like N400,000; it is not worth it.
“It is definitely going to reduce traffic and will strictly be for only those who have business, meeting and conference in Turkey. Those freelance travellers that just do stopover for two or three days using one stone to kill two birds are no more and this group is in the majority, so that majority being taken away will reduce traffic into Turkey from Nigeria.
Of course, it is invariably going to affect the airline because we all know that to the US on Turkish airlines, the return connection is very bad. You have as much as 23 hours layover and because this e-visa has been taken off from Nigerian passport holders, if you have to use Turkish Airlines with that type of long layover, you have to be at the airport where you have to spend extra money to pay for a hotel at the airport. Those are the inconveniences that will make people not to take Turkish Airline as an option and their sales will reduce; that is the implication for them. There is no implication for us as Nigerians because we have not been stopped from entering Turkey, it is just that the visa options that is made available.”
Reacting to the UAE ban of e-visa and visa on arrival, the former NANTA President said in view of the back and forth position the UAE and Nigeria has generated, travel agents now adopt the ‘when the UAE is ready, we are ready’ policy.
Akporiaye said: “Like the UAE, I said it is very interesting. We have been hearing so many things that the visa ban will be lifted only to come back and say no it was not the case, now we are hearing again that it will be lifted that the airline will start flying from October 1. We are still waiting we have not heard any official announcement of tourist visa being opened for Nigerians.
“For us, we are holding the position of whenever they are ready we are here. We are not going to run after them. We are not going to sweat and expend our energy trying to find out what UAE is doing, how far with the tourist visa for UAE, are Nigerians now allowed to enter UAE; we have all moved on, Nigerians have moved on like I said.
“For holiday makers, it is not really a big deal. If a particular destination closes for you, you pick another destination to go for your holiday. Holidays are not tied to one destination all the time. For we Nigerians, there is really no impact on us because we just pick another destination and we will still have a fun-filled holiday.
“It doesn’t disrupt anything on our own part. As a matter, we have just taken a position; let them be, whenever they are ready for us they should let us know. We are not going to be running after them again. So, until they sort out whatever their issues are, which I am not privy to because they never told us and our government never told us what it is. It is just for us to sit down, relax and watch what is going on. There is no anxiety, there is no expectation, there is nothing going on. Whenever there are ready for us, we will be ready for them. The way out of this, like I said, it is a diplomatic issue. It is in the hands of the government; both countries are to sit down and have discussions and agreements.”
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