Wednesday 8th December 2021: The National Assembly on Tuesday condemned the United Kingdom’s travel ban on Nigeria.
The lawmakers in their reactions to travel ban imposed on Nigeria by the UK  on Saturday, demanded a reversal of the travel restriction.
Members of the House at the plenary on Tuesday, said Nigeria and other African countries were being bullied by Western countries for their failures to look inwards and develop their economies.
Moving a motion of urgent public importance was the Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu. His motion titled ‘Need to Intervene in the Suspension of Issuance of Visitors Visa to Nigerians by the United Kingdom Government,’ which the lawmakers unanimously adopted after a long debate.
 Elumelu said though the ban was for Nigerians going the UK, “it does not exempt over 8,000 Nigerian travellers that have bought air tickets to visit Nigeria during this festive period, as the restriction would affect their re-entry into the UK after holidays.”
The lawmaker also said instead of working with Nigeria as a Commonwealth ally on ways to combat and curtail the spread of the new variant, the UK decided to ban Nigerian travellers.
Elumelu said, “The House is further worried that the UK Government chose to announce the ban without discussing the data in its possession with the Nigerian Government and instead gave an hour’s notice to the Nigeria authorities before its inclusion on the Red List, contrary to known international convention.
The House, while adopting the motion, mandated its Committees on Health and Foreign Affairs to interface with the Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Steering on COVID 19 “on best ways of resolving this issue.”
Also, the Senate  condemned the UK’s inclusion of Nigeria in its COVID-19 red list without justification.
The House described the travel ban as discriminatory and an attack on diplomatic relations between the two countries also calling on the British authorities to consider removing Nigeria from the red list.
The Senate urged the UK government to be sensitive to the diplomatic relationship between both countries when taking decision that affect Nigerian citizens.
It advised the Federal Government to engage the British authorities to reverse Nigeria’s inclusion on the red list.