King Salman of Saudi Arabia By Mojeed Alabi Saudi Arabia has identified about 11,600 Nigerians reportedly stranded in the country,...
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| King Salman of Saudi Arabia |
By Mojeed Alabi
Saudi Arabia has identified about 11,600 Nigerians
reportedly stranded in the country, many due to the coronavirus disease, and is
making plans to airlift them back home, an official has said.
The Nigerian embassy official, who is privy to the
development but asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to
journalists, said the Saudi’s decision was contained in a letter addressed to
the embassy a few weeks ago.
The source added that the list, according to the Saudis,
includes Nigerians who had visited the country for umrah – a lesser hajj – and
were held up by the movement restrictions introduced by Saudi authorities as
part of containment measures.
The kingdom, which recorded its index coronavirus case on
March 2, had initially imposed a travel ban on some neighbouring countries
before extending it to include European countries and 12 others, on March 12.
Minister confirms
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, confirmed
the development. He said Nigeria’s logistics challenge has been responsible for
the delay in the repatriation.
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| Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affair |
He said; “We are aware of this… In fact, they wanted to land
last week, but they couldn’t because there was no arrangement to receive them.
“As you heard, we have a capacity we can absorb. The medical
people have to monitor them for two weeks for quarantine. But there is only a
certain number of port health authority staff who are able to monitor all these
people as they come in.
“As the SGF said, we have to finish the ones we have, then
allow some more to come in. We can’t allow everybody to come in because we
don’t have the capacity to house them and also to monitor them medically.”
Saudi’s quoted figure surprises embassy
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the Nigerian embassy in Saudi
Arabia was surprised by the huge number of Nigerians contained on the Saudi’s
list of Nigerians to be repatriated, and has responded to the letter by seeking
clarification on how the kingdom arrived at such.
Our source said in the letter, the Saudis noted that only
340 Nigerians have indicated their willingness to return home. The Saudi
authorities, therefore, wrote to seek the embassy’s cooperation in the search
“for the remaining 11,260.”
“The Saudi authorities officially stated that they will be
taking charge of airlifting all Nigerians who came into the Kingdom for Umrah
and or visit and got stranded here as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the
official said.
He added that the embassy “has requested the Saudi
authorities to furnish it with more detailed information on what they have to
enable it know how to play its own role accordingly.”
Earlier, when contacted, the consular officer of the
Nigerian mission in Saudi Arabia, Muhammed Aliyu, refused to speak on the
issue.
In a message shared on WhatsApp with our reporter, Mr Aliyu
said the embassy has no right to speak to the media on such matters.
He, however, directed this newspaper to Nigeria’s foreign
affairs ministry, saying the approval to communicate with the media would have
to be conveyed in writing to the embassy by the ministry.
“Mr. Alabi, professionally, Embassy has no right to speak to
the media directly or indirectly, except with express approval from MFA
(ministry of foreign affairs) Headquarters in Abuja. The approval will be
communicated in writing to the Embassy, with clear instructions,” he said.
Mr Aliyu, however, confirmed that every official
correspondence received by the embassy has been forwarded to the ministry.
“The Embassy has forwarded every official correspondence
received from Saudi Government to Abuja. Please, contact the appropriate
department in the ministry for more information. Best wishes, please,” he
added.
In his response on Tuesday, the foreign affairs minister
clarified that those on the list as identified by the Saudi authorities are not
only those who had travelled to the country for spiritual or tourism purpose.
The minister said they include those who are illegally
living in the kingdom without having necessary documents.
“They are not just students but some people living there
illegally and all kinds of people,” Mr. Onyeama said of the composition of more
than 11,000 Nigerians on the list.
Stranded students seek intervention
PREMIUM TIMES has also learnt that Nigerian students
studying in various universities in the kingdom have appealed to the Nigerian
government to approve a waiver for a Saudi Arabia airline that is meant to
bring them back home to be able to touch down in the country.
Hundreds of Nigerians who are mostly on scholarships
sponsored by the Saudi government and who have rounded off their final
examinations, have been asked to vacate hostels by their various university
authorities.
In a letter addressed to the Nigerian ambassador in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, a copy of which was shared with PREMIUM TIMES, the Association of
Nigerian Students in Saudi Arabia, Imam University’s branch, noted that the
institution’s department of scholarship has directed that they seek approval
from the embassy to return home.
The correspondence, which was shared with our reporter by
the association’s president, Abdul-Hakeem Adesokan, listed the required
assistance needed from the embassy to include letter from the embassy addressed
to Saudi Arabia’s foreign affairs ministry “voiding all hindrances and
resistance for the safe return of the students back to Nigeria and carry out a
COVID-19 test before departure.”
The letter, which was dated May 3, also requested; “A letter
from the embassy directed to Saudi Arabia airline in order to conclude on a
fixed date for the travelling.”
Ministry, PTF in charge of such matters –Diaspora Commission
When contacted, the chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora
Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the commission is not directly involved in
all matters relating to evacuation and repatriation due to the corona virus
disease.
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| Abike Dabiri |
“All issues regarding the above will be handled directly by
the minister of foreign affairs and the PTF,” she said.
Efforts in top gear
Although the Nigerian embassy in Saudi Arabia refused to
speak officially on the matter, a senior official at the embassy told PREMIUM
TIMES that efforts were being made to evacuate Nigerians willing to return to
home.
According to the source, the Saudi authorities have,
however, not notified the embassy of any separate plan to take the students
back to Nigeria.
The source disclosed that as instructed by Nigerian
government, the embassy had continued with the compilation of the lists of
Nigerians willing to be evacuated home.
“As for the Nigerian students, we don’t know of any special
arrangements made for them by the Saudi authorities. The students, we are
aware, especially from Islamic University in Madinah; King Saud University, Riyadh;
Imam University, Riyadh; King Khalid University; Dammam University, among
others, all applied to be beneficiaries of the proposed evaluation being made
by the Nigerian government for all Nigerians in diaspora who are willing to
return to Nigeria within this trying time of COVID-19.
“In that respect, the embassy worked tooth and nail, day and
night to get necessary data from those interested and is in communication with
the concerned authorities in Nigeria for necessary lines of action.”
The official could not give the exact figure of the Nigerian
students in the country, saying the universities do not go through the embassy
in offering the students admission, “and so it is difficult to know the
Nigerians studying in the country except few ones who have something to do with
the embassy.”
“The Embassy has tried many times to get an exact figure of
Nigerian students in the Kingdom, but due to the fact that these students are
admitted directly from the Saudi government without any known recourse to
aligning with the Nigerian end, we do not have the figure,” the source said.
“For your information, admission to Saudi universities are
granted directly to the students after applying online through the individual
university portal. However, we have roughly 200 Nigerian students willing to be
part of the proposed evacuation exercise, and over a hundred of them are from
Islamic University in Madinah, which has close to 500 Nigerian students
studying in it in all levels of studies.”
Pandemic
Since March 2 when it recorded its index case, Saudi Arabia
as of May 13, has recorded a total of 42,925 confirmed cases, which is reported
to be the highest of the states of the Arabian Gulf.
The country has also recorded 15,257 recoveries and 269
deaths.
Apart from shutting down its airspace, the Saudi authorities
have also embarked on massive evacuation of the country’s citizens across the
world, while also seeking cooperation of other nations for the repatriation of
their own citizens.
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