The Minister of Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika, said the federal government would not back down on its protest against discriminatory profiling of Nigeria by Emirates airline.
The minister said this at a briefing by COVID-19 Presidential Steering Committee in Abuja.
He said the civil aviation is guided by agreements and international cooperation that are binding on all parties.
“It is only one aviation. So, we found this position to be discriminatory against our nation and is therefore unacceptable. They claimed the reason they are taking this stance against Nigeria is because there are fake results.
“And I said, there are fake results as well in UAE, Germany, Italy and other countries in the world but Nigeria has gone ahead to address by ensuring fake results are easily detected even from the phone,” he said.
He said the death rate in some African countries like Ghana and Rwanda was also higher, but the United Arab Emirates has not treated these countries the same way it is treating Nigeria.
“Nigeria’s infection rate as well as death rates is far less than other countries like Ghana, Italy that UAE is allowing into their country but chose to be discriminatory, so their action is country specific.
“Ghanaians, Rwandans can go to Dubai direct while Nigerians cannot. So this is country specific and we will not accept it. We cannot be the only country that is isolated.
“In one of our discussions, they mentioned South Africa. In their case, they wrote and demanded that they be included, so it is by choice. It is not Nigeria’s choice that we should be excluded and discriminated against. So the update is that we will escalate the matter and we are sure they will withdraw this very soon,” he said.
