Bola Tinubu calls for urgent resolution of Nigeria-UAE crisis

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has called for an immediate resolution to disagreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that affected flights and issuing of visas.

The UAE last year stopped issuing visas to Nigerians after Emirates airlines suspended flights after being unable to repatriate funds from the West African country due to forex restrictions.

Emirates said then that it had failed to make progress after “making considerable efforts to initiate dialogue with the relevant authorities” to find a viable solution

On Thursday, the president ordered the immediate resolution of the matter and said that he was ready to ” personally” intervene in the matter.

“We should look at the issues as a family problem, and resolve it amicably… We must work together. We need to agree on core aviation and immigration issues,” he said.

He spoked as he received the UAE ambassador, Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi, at state house in the capital, Abuja.

Mr Al-Shamsi said he had worked on 24 deals with the Nigerian government, adding that “these are small issues, all within one family,” and they will solve them.

With BBC