Evacuation of Nigerians in Ukraine begins Wednesday as Gbaja meets minister
The Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, again
re-enforced the position of the legislature when he invited the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Godfrey Onyeama, to his office in Abuja on Monday for a
meeting on the plight of Nigerians caught in the conflict between Russia and
Ukraine.
The first batch of the air-lifting is now scheduled to take
place on Wednesday this week, according to the minister.
The evacuation, earlier planned for Monday, was rescheduled
for Wednesday to give enough room for the ministry, the House and the Nigerian
foreign missions in Ukraine, Poland and Russia to complete the formalities of
moving Nigerians from inside Ukraine to safe borders with neighbouring
countries.
Gbajabiamila, while commending the ministry for the steps
taken so far to ensure the safety of Nigerians, the majority of who are
students, however, stated that the country must find ways to quicken its
response time to emergencies.
He noted that response mechanisms, including funds,
aeroplanes and other equipment, must readily be on standby to respond to
life-threatening situations such as the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and how
they affected Nigerians.
"We must be in a state of readiness at all times. We
should have our own planes and necessary funding to respond quickly to such
emergencies," the Speaker stated.
He stated that measures the National Assembly would take
included legislation to address such emergencies and supplementary
appropriations among others.
Gbajabiamila recalled how the House was left with no choice
but to pass a resolution on Thursday last week, mandating its Majority Leader,
Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, and the Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Yusuf
Buba, to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and proceed to Ukraine by
the weekend to facilitate the air-lifting of students home.
He added that this was the last resort as members were
bombarded with telephone calls by their constituents, coupled with the viral
videos and pictures of Nigerians caught in the conflict, appealing to the
Nigerian Government to come to their aid urgently.
Onyeama, while giving the Speaker a situation report,
reassured him that things were under control in Ukraine, as the Federal
Government had put necessary arrangements in place to ensure the safe return of
Nigerians.
He disclosed that in the last few days, the ministry in
conjunction with the missions had completed formalities for Nigerians to move
to safe border points from where they would be transported in buses to the
airports in neighbouring countries.
He listed Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and even
Russia, among the countries to be used as exit points.
The minister, who said there were about 5,600 Nigerian
students in Ukraine, added that there were also non-students, some of whom
might not have been legally documented.
He informed Gbajabiamila that working closely with the
governments of those countries, the ministry had secured their cooperation to
grant access to Nigerians into their territories, preparatory for the
evaluation.
Onyeama addressed reports that Africans, particularly
Nigerians, were not allowed to leave Ukraine or granted access into the
neighbouring countries, blaming the chaos at some of the borders on
"panic" and the fact that so many people were rushing at the time on
hearing the sound of bombs and artillery fire.
"Where we are now is the point of ascertaining the
exact number we are dealing with and to agree on the location for the evaluation.
"We are thinking Bucharest; but all of this is being
sorted out and we are constantly working to ensure that everything goes on very
smoothly," the minister added.
Onyeama also explained that the delay in evacuating
Nigerians wasn't because the government wasn't ready or didn't know what to do.
According to him, "80% to 90%" of countries and
people did not believe that Russia would indeed invade Ukraine.
"I was in touch with our ambassador early enough and he
assured us that there was no need for evacuation. The students even said there
was no problem at all.
"Also, the Ukrainian government did not want people to leave, and especially because most of our people are students, who will not be able to go back to Ukraine again, should they leave", Onyeama further stated.
Comments
Post a Comment