The Federal Government will begin evacuation of Nigerians stranded in the Ukraine/Russia crisis on Wednesday, March 2
Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, made the announcement during a meeting with the Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila on Monday, February 28.
He revealed that the federal government has finalised plans to begin the evacuation of citizens who have become stranded as a result of the crisis, and that planes will be dispatched to assist with the evacuation.
“We hope to start the evacuation on Wednesday,” Onyeama said. We are doing everything possible to ensure that planes will be dispatched for evaluation on Wednesday.”
“Where we are now is the point of ascertaining the exact number we are dealing with and to agree on the location for the evaluation.
“We are thinking Bucharest; but all of this is being sorted out and we are constantly working to ensure that everything goes on very smoothly”, the minister added
The Minister also dismissed claims of racism and discrimination against Nigerians and other blacks attempting to flee to other countries for safety.”
The advice then was for Nigerians to stay put,” Onyeama continued, “but as soon as the air strike started, most people started advancing towards the borders, and this caused a huge backlog of people who were walking 37 kilometres to the Polish border.”
And when I started hearing stories of racism and discrimination, I called the Ukrainian Minister, who said it had nothing to do with race.”
Onyeama also stated that the delay in evacuating Nigerians was not due to the government being unprepared or unsure of what to do.
According to him, “80 percent to 90 percent” of countries and people did not believe Russia would invade Ukraine.
“I spoke with our ambassador early enough, and he assured us that there was no need for evacuation.” The students even stated that there was no problem at all.
Also, the Ukrainian government did not want people to leave, particularly because the majority of our people are students who will be unable to return to Ukraine if they leave, Onyeama added.
