The Federal Government will begin evacuating approximately 2,000 Nigerians who have fled the conflict in Ukraine to neighboring countries on Wednesday.
Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, revealed in an interview that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd. ), had approved funds for the airlines to evacuate Nigerians.When asked if there were about 2,000 evacuees and when the evacuation would take place, he said, “Wednesday hopefully… Max Air and Air Peace.”
He stated that there were approximately 8,000 Nigerians in Ukraine, 5,000 of whom were students, and that the Federal Government had advised Air Peace and Air Max to airlift the Nigerians who desired to be evacuated.
Earlier, Onyeama stated to the House of Representatives during a briefing on the evacuation efforts, “We made Romania the hub, and over a thousand Nigerians have crossed there.” Poland has around 250, Budapest, Hungary, has a similar number, and Slovakia is rapidly growing. It is also in the 200s. There are some Nigerians in Sumy, which is close to the Russian border.
“I have been in touch with the ambassador. There are about 150 of them who are looking to cross into Russia and we have asked the ambassador in Russia to try and get a permit for them to transit to Russia and hopefully by Wednesday we will start deploying planes to start bringing the Nigerians,” the minister said.
Onyeama argued that it was not the Federal Government’s sole responsibility to evacuate Nigerians who were stranded abroad because this was not the global practice. People who travel abroad with their own money, he believes, should be able to return home on their own.
He recalled last year when some Nigerians willingly traveled to Russia for the World Cup but were unable to return home due to a lack of funds.
The minister revealed that Buhari had authorized a flight to return them home.
Onyeama revealed that family members of Nigerian diplomats in Ukraine had been evacuated, and that the diplomats themselves would be evacuated soon.
He also stated that about four to five aircraft had been secured to airlift Nigerians from the Ukrainian neighbours.
On why the Nigerian government was not proactive like the United States which had advised its citizens to leave Ukraine over a week before the Russian invasion, Onyeama said the Nigerian diplomats in Ukraine were the ones that assured the Nigerian government that Russia would not invade.
He said no one could have known that Vladmir Putin would order his military to invade Ukraine barely days after he said he had withdrawn them from the border.