Ribadu’s Fury Over Canada Visa Refusal

Many Nigerians expertise visa refusal every day. They don’t want the Nationwide Safety Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, to invoke hell in opposition to any nation to make the purpose.

Sadly, Ribadu’s fury after the Canadian Excessive Fee refused visas to Chief of Defence Employees Common Christopher Musa and different officers for the winter Invictus Video games in Vancouver Whistler was directed at an unlikely goal. Canada may be criticised for a lot of issues, however Ottawa’s faults don’t embrace consular meanness.

Within the final 5 years, Canada has been the third-biggest vacation spot for Nigerian immigrants, particularly college students, after the US and the UK. A number of sources, together with reviews by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), counsel that Canada, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates have comparatively pleasant visa insurance policies for Africans.

Schengen refusals

If Ribadu wants any thought of what a visa hell seems to be like, he ought to have a look at Europe, particularly the Schengen space. In response to a BusinessDay report, Nigeria ranked among the many prime 5 nations globally for Schengen visa refusals between 2022 and 2023.

Nigerian candidates submitted 86,815 requests three years in the past, with 39,189 rejected—a forty five.1 p.c refusal charge. By 2023, the variety of functions had elevated to 105,926, however 42,920 have been denied, reflecting a barely decrease rejection charge of 40.8 p.c. On the charge at which President Donald Trump goes, ahead of later, the US would possibly upstage Schengen because the world’s meanest visa gateway.

There’ll hardly be anybody to talk up for the casualties. When strange residents are denied visas, they have to deserve it, proper? However Common Musa is just not an strange citizen. He’s the jewel of Nigeria’s navy prime brass and will obtain full consular courtesies on an excellent day and not using a fuss.

What occurred?

So, what occurred? Why did the Canadian Excessive Fee refuse to concern visas to Common Musa and the delegation of navy officers for the Invictus Video games? Let’s dial again.

A few years in the past, residents didn’t want visas to go to different Commonwealth nations, at the least for the primary 60 days.

Even by 1962, when many of those nations imposed visa necessities as a result of immigration pressures, a couple of, together with Canada, maintained visa-free insurance policies longer than most. It nonetheless maintains a visa-free coverage for a couple of Commonwealth nations, whereas Britain has a for much longer checklist of visa exemptions for some Commonwealth nations, together with Malawi and Botswana.

Africa talks the discuss

Right now, even intra-African journey is an enormous battle for Nigerian passport holders, regardless of all of the discuss by AU about visas on arrival. Because of the shameful conduct of some desperadoes who’ve elevated the chance issue of the inexperienced passport and successive irresponsible governments which have plunged the nation into the present mess, travelling with a Nigerian passport is just not straightforward.

If the nation’s standing has moved from visa-on-arrival as much as the early Nineteen Seventies in lots of Commonwealth (and even non-Commonwealth nations) to a standing of cautious admission and even outright hostility towards rating authorities officers, Ribadu doesn’t must invoke hell. It’s a metaphor that painfully reminds us of our odyssey.  Why was a four-star common within the Nigerian military denied a visa in a fashion that has become a road brawl?

Cracks inside

Just a few days after Ribadu requested the Canadian Excessive Fee to “go to hell”—an expression that may have shocked even the hosts of hell’s consular providers—it got here to gentle that the refusal could have had extra to do with the tardiness of a desk officer on the military’s protocol division than with the Canadian Excessive Fee in Abuja.

The Nation newspaper quoted competent sources as saying that the Military failed to connect the word verbale from the Ministry of International Affairs that ought to have accompanied the visa functions.

If that’s right – and the navy authorities haven’t denied the report – how was that Canada’s fault? The query nonetheless must be requested: How did 14 of the 21 troopers enrolled get visas when the officers and delegation chief couldn’t be processed?

Relax…

Ribadu isn’t just one other authorities official. He can be justified in feeling slighted a few perceived diplomatic slight on Nigeria’s contingent, even when it was a contingent attending the Munich beer pageant. However his workplace calls for a sober and dignified response, not the form of factor Idi-Amin might need mentioned on the eve of evicting 1000’s of Asians from Uganda.

The report of official tardiness was sobering sufficient, however the function was no much less puzzling. After all, Prince Harry’s good thought of the Invictus is to provide wounded servicemen and veterans an opportunity to attach and bond with others as they remind us of their sacrifices for our security and safety and rediscover that means in a shared humanity. However since its begin in 2014, Invictus has been a summer time recreation.

Their winter video games

If the organisers determined to increase it to the winter to incorporate adaptive sports activities, resembling alpine snowboarding, Nordic snowboarding, skeleton and wheelchair curling, amongst others – hardly core Nigerian sports activities – that’s honest sufficient. But, how any of those sports activities severely concern Nigeria when solely 15 African nations have participated within the Winter Olympics in 58 years between 1960 and 2022, and of this quantity, solely seven have achieved so greater than as soon as, is one other matter.

Winter is just not our factor. The urgency of the duty at dwelling – a cussed rise within the wave of insurgency within the Northeast and North West, regardless of reported features in some areas – requires the total consideration of the navy’s prime command. Common Musa ought to have delegated attendance.

How to not be indignant

Managing the refusal was no much less scandalous. If a bunch of secondary college college students on a Sudoku exhibition tour to Kathmandu was refused visas and determined to moan about it on TikTok, I can perceive that.

However it defies widespread sense that Nigeria’s prime safety adviser would dramatise a matter nicely inside his attain to research and take remedial steps, if needed. Ribadu neither did himself nor Common Musa any favours by his intemperate remarks. He gave strange people one thing to jeer about and made the nation look ridiculous.

Can’t keep down

Idiots could have introduced the nation to its knees, down from a spot the place Africa, the Commonwealth, and the remainder of the world seemed as much as us and our passport ranked among the many most revered. However nothing says we should keep there.

The job at hand is to dig us out of that gap, a big level Ribadu made however sadly misplaced in his match of anger. Trendy consular diplomacy consists of, amongst different issues, a well timed, trusted, and safe data-sharing system that offers events to a transaction cheap consolation. The place that fails, nasty surprises are inevitable.

Not a lot can get achieved by tantrums or by a false sense of entitlement.