Nigerian legislators from the House of Representatives thursday arrived Romaniato initiate monitoring and assist in the evacuation process of Nigerians fleeing Ukraine.
This was announced in a press release by Nkem Anyata-Lafia, press assistant to Yusuf Buba, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
However, the move has been condemned by a diplomat who said it is a waste of taxpayers’ money.
The delegation is headed by the leader of the House, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa.
Lawmakers were given a “mandate” by House leaders to “go to the war-torn region to ensure that all Nigerians who wish to return home from the epicenter of the conflicts are supported to do so.”
“We don’t have a return date yet, for now, we are here until we are sure that everyone who wishes to return to Nigeria is home and safe,” Buba told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview.
He added that the delegation has also been to hotels where Nigerians reside, mainly students; to make sure they are well and healthy.
The House of Representatives, last Thursday, resolved to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Air Peace to start the evacuation of Nigerians in Ukraine after the invasion of the country by Russia.
@CasaNGR Majority Leader, Rep. @aadoguwa-, and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Yusuf Buba, with some Nigerian students in Romania in preparation for the evacuation of the students to Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/kgfNgrXx7f
— House of Representatives NGR (@HouseNGR) March 3, 2022
whose job
Responsibility for evacuating stranded Nigerians rests with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its departments and agencies, including the country’s foreign missions.
However, lawmakers believe that the Foreign Ministry was slow to react to the Ukraine crisis and that bureaucratic bottlenecks may delay any evacuation.
Last Thursday, the House of Representatives ordered the Doguwa team to participate in the evacuation of stranded Nigerians.
The lawmakers’ resolution came shortly after PREMIUM TIMES reported that Nigerian students in Ukraine asked for help after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Jide Osuntokun, former Nigerian ambassador to Germany, reacting to the legislator’s trip, said that it was irresponsible for the legislators to travel to Romania as they had no reason to be there.
“It is absolutely irresponsible of him to have gone to any of the countries. What role will they play there? They are not welfare officers, they should have let the right people go.”
He added that “they only went there to win estacodes; Absolute irresponsibility on your part. They don’t belong there. What other country has its legislator there?
According to Osuntokun, this act is part of the general irresponsibility in the country.
evacuation
The Nigerian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that it expects to receive the first batch of evacuees from Ukraine on Thursday.
Mr. Buba told this reporter on Thursday afternoon that the Nigerian students were at the airport waiting for the plane to arrive.
According to the Foreign Ministry statement, more than 2,000 Nigerians fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, as of Tuesday night, had been received by Nigerian missions in countries in the area, including Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Hungary.
There are about 5,600 Nigerian students in Ukraine, the Nigerian Foreign Ministry confirmed.
Eight days after the war, at least a million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, the United Nations said, warning that “at this rate” the exodus could become “the biggest refugee crisis of this century.” .
This number is more than two percent of the 44 million inhabitants of Ukraine.