by Oge Okonkwo

The Senate yesterday reportedly rejected the motion to condemn the proposed introduction of  £3,000 visa bond by Britain for Nigerians travelling to the United Kingdom for the first time.

The reason most of the senators gave was that it was too early in  the day, premature and pre-emptive to consider such a motion for a policy that was still at the conception stage.

In his presentation, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Mathew Nwagwu (Imo- North), who sponsored the motion, noted that Article 5, Paragraph (m) of the Vienna Convention on consular relations of 1963, to which both Nigeria and Britain were signatories, specifically “forbids a sending state party to the convention from performing functions objected to or prohibited by the laws and regulations of the receiving state party”.

National Mirror News reports:

Nwagwu also alluded to the fact that both countries are signatories to the 1979 Lusaka Declaration of the Commonwealth on racism and racial prejudice as well as the United Nations Declaration on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination 1963, and the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discriminations of 1966.

He described the proposed visa bond by the British Government as selective, discriminatory, obnoxious, vexatious and unprecedented, stressing that the said bond would “place additional barriers, burden and undue hardship on the paths of Nigerians intending to travel to UK for legitimate reasons”.

The lawmaker, therefore, urged the Senate to make three resolutions, firstly condemning the selective and discriminatory imposition of the said visa bond on Nigerian travellers by the British Government.

Secondly, urging the Federal Government to take necessary steps to protect Nigerians from the payment of the said obnoxious visa bond or similar levies in the future by Britain or any other country.

Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, in his contribution urged the Senate to be cautious on the matter.

Contributing along the same line, Senator Heineken Lokponiri noted that the matter at hand had to do with a policy by the UK government that was still at the proposal stage.

He was of the position that at best, the Senate should ask the relevant authorities to use all known diplomatic channels to address it.

Also, Senator Barnabas Gemade requested the Senate to exercise caution in handling the matter because of its sensitive nature, stressing that such a pre-emptive action, if taken too far, might result in permanent enmity.

Following the intervention of the Senate President, David Mark, the Red Chamber decided to urge the relevant authorities to use all diplomatic means and channels to see what to do to avert the proposed policy.

Subsequently, the sponsor of the motion accordingly withdrew it for a future date.