The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has condemned the Canadian Embassy’s denial of a visa to Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa.
General Musa disclosed on Thursday at the maiden annual lecture of the National Association of the Institute for Security Studies, that the Canadian embassy denied him and some members of his team visas to attend an event to honour war veterans in Canada.
Tunji-Ojo, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, said the action by the Canadian embassy is condemnable and shows a lack of respect for Nigeria as a country.
The minister questioned how an average Nigerian would be treated by the Canadian embassy if the Chief of Defence Staff were disrespected in that way.
“Without knowing the full facts, I think even for us it is a policy, the issue of reciprocity as I always say, has to be given due consideration. As much as we are not ready to dabble into the sovereignty of other nations, the issue of visas, issue of migration management is a sovereign issue.
“As much as we don’t want to dabble into that, it is not a disrespect to the chief of defence staff, to me, without knowing the facts, it is disrespectful to the country, and it is disrespectful to us as a people. If that can happen to the chief of defence staff, then I am worried for an average Nigerian.
The Minister said that he is struggling to find justification for the action by Canada, noting that even if there are questions the embassy needed to ask, there are diplomatic back channels in which that could have been done.
He said he is confident that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take the necessary steps to resolve the issue diplomatically and ensure that there is mutual respect between the two nations.
