The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, on Tuesday, met with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, and his aviation counterpart, Hadi Sirika, over the flight prohibition between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Nigeria.
Also present at the meeting were representatives of Emirates Airline, the Chairman/CEO of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, and heads of agencies in the aviation sector.
After the meeting, which was held behind closed doors and lasted for about three hours, Gbajabiamila told journalists that it was a fruitful deliberation where issues at stake were discussed.
The Speaker said both Nigeria and UAE had good diplomatic relations and that they would not allow the current row to mar the long-standing friendship.
The Speaker also commended the Minister of Aviation and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for the bold steps taken in the last couple of days toward ensuring an amicable resolution of the impasse.
He observed that the “UAE Government is already beginning to take steps to address what was an unfortunate situation in the last few days. And even as we are meeting even the UK, again due to the bold steps taken by the Ministers, of taking Nigeria off the red list.
“These are welcome developments considering the relationship between UAE and Nigeria particularly in the last few days the president has been there, the vice president has been there, many of our government functionaries have been there to foster stronger ties between the two countries.
“And so we are not going to allow these to mar the giant strides that have been made between the two countries.
“The letter was written by I believe UAE to Air Peace allowing them seven slots out of the many that are possible. A lot of revelations will be done during a closed-door meeting.”
The Speaker said there were steps taken to address the issues and that “in the next couple of days, this matter will be sealed, I believe. We’re engaged in parliamentary diplomacy. That’s what we’re doing.
“We’re not going to allow this to mar the giant strides made between the two countries.”
The Speaker noted that the UAE Government had already written Air Peace to allow the airline to operate seven slots of flights.
He commended the two Ministers for their efforts in resolving the issues even as he appreciated Nigerians for their sacrifices and for standing by the Nigerian Government on the face-off.
On his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, said the meeting under Gbajabiamila’s leadership was a fruitful one, noting that the action pointed to the relevance of Executive-Legislative engagements.
He said they were hopeful that all the issues would be resolved in no distant future.
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