President Muhammadu Buhari's request that the United Arab Emirates lift its restriction on issuing visas to citizens of Nigeria from October 2022 has been ignored.
The visa prohibition does not apply to people with diplomatic passports, though.
In a phone call recounted by his spokeswoman, Garba Shehu, last month, Buhari pleaded with his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayad Al Nahyan, to lift the visa requirement for Nigerians.
The Nigerian president revealed over the phone that, as a gesture of goodwill toward the Arab country and as punishment for the now-resolved months-long diplomatic dispute between the two countries, he had instructed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to increase the amount of foreign exchange allocated to Emirates Airlines.
The UAE seems uninterested in his offer and has gone silent on the subject since the phone discussion almost a month ago with Buhari's presidency expiring in June.
Instead, the UAE has insisted that the travel bans on Africans and Nigerians suspected of causing trouble on its soil through cults and other unlawful activities remain in effect.
It is unknown if Buhari would keep trying to convince the Sheikh to lift the ban before his term as president comes to an end or if he will delegate that duty to Bola Tinubu, who will take office after him.
