The House of Representatives on Thursday resolved to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Air Peace to commence the evacuation of Nigerians in Ukraine following the invasion of the country by Russia.
The House mandated the leader of the House, Ado Doguwa, to coordinate the interface with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and consider working with Air Peace Chairman, Allen Onyema, to avoid bureaucratic bottlenecks.
This resolution followed the adoption of a motion of matter of urgent public importance moved by Ahmed Munir (APC, Kano) on Thursday.
Recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into the Donbas region of Ukraine, where Moscow earlier recognised the autonomous governments in rebel-held territories of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Although there had been weeks of Russian military build-up around Ukraine and reports it was preparing for an attack, the Nigerian government made no efforts to evacuate its citizens. This paper had also reported that Nigerian students in the country have called for help to leave the country.
Equally, Mr Onyema is not new to an emergency evacuation. He was instrumental to the evacuation of Nigerians during the xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa and was honoured by the House for his role.
The evacuation from Ukraine would not be as easy, however, as Russian air forces had damaged facilities at military and civilian airports in the country. There were no flights in and out of Ukraine Thursday afternoon, BBC reports.
Munir said Nigeria has several undergraduate and graduate students currently studying in Ukraine, some of whom are on government scholarships.
“This is in addition to a number of Nigerian diplomats and their families in the Kiev embassy and Nigerian expatriates across Ukraine,” he said.
According to reports, there are about 4,000 Nigerian students studying in Ukraine.
Munir warned that “if a strategic plan is not put in place to secure and provide safe passage for our citizens, they may be trapped or worse, harmed.”
Speaking on the motion, Gbajabiamila suggested that if due to bureaucratic bottlenecks, the government is unable to ensure the evacuation, the House should work with Air Peace.
“America said it’s not going to be bloodless. We should be more proactive and I think it’s better late than never. It’s important that at this point to forget all the bureaucratic bottlenecks, and look out for our citizens, especially students.
“My thought is that leader of the House Hon. Ado Doguwa and Chairman Foreign Affairs (Yusuf Buba, APC, Adamawa) should liaise with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Intelligence Agency and Embassy in Ukraine. And if nothing positive comes out of it, then we should liaise with chairman Air Peace.”
He added that the concerned officials should depart the country to commence the evacuation at whatever cost to the House.
“Whatever it is going to cost the House, you need to leave this country latest tomorrow and come back on Monday with many of our students,” he said.
When the motion was put to question, the “ayes” had it.
