Nigerian High Commission In UK Runs Out Of Visa Stickers Days After Buhari Left London 

Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Godffery Onyeama

Reports reaching BigPen Online shows that Nigerian High Commission in United Kingdom has run out of Visa Sticker.

The development has caused tension among applicants, some whom became stranded over the weekend.

Many applicants couldn’t obtain visa to meet their business transactions or meet up with scheduled appointments because of the development, our source said.

This is coming barely few weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari left London where he had being for about 105 days for medical vacation which became a national concern.

Credible sources disclosed to one of our correspondents that many visa applicants who couldn’t obtain “Express Visa” to embark on their trip sought an alternative means  when they were turn back for lack of stickers to process their application.

Some applicants who couldn’t pick their visa due to the stickers not being available have been questioning whether they would get refund for their flight already booked.

“You wouldn’t believe the latest!! UK runs out of Nigerian Visa Stickers!!! They could not issue business visas because they ran out of stickers, security detail told me that was the reason for the refusal.

“It is apparent that the stickers are printed in Malaysia, shipped to Nigeria and then shipped to UK. This is serious! I am missing my flight because of it.

“Right now, no clue about what’s going on because they refuse to tell us. A lot of persons are stranded and couldn’t make their trip. I met a guy last Monday who was told to come back Tuesday 29th. He had been waiting 2 weeks already.

“Visas in the UK are processed by OIS (oisservices.com) and they says “No Express visas” in a notice hanged on the door”, our source who preferred anonymity said in a telephone conversation.

Recalls that venturesafrica.com  had reported similar incidents in 2016 which was embarrassing to the Federal Government.

The then Nigeria’s Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye who just retired after 35 years of Diplomatic service had confirmed that the country was unable to raise the required funds to pay its printers to print new visa stickers and travel passports.

It was not however clear whether lack of funds to print stickers was also responsible for the development.

In a memo made available by the permanent secretary through his twitter account titled “Supply of Visa Stickers and Passport Booklets to our Missions: Global Communications Advisory for Nigerians”, the out gone Permanent Secretary had blamed the difficulty in accessing funds on the result of the Treasury Single Account.

He however asked Nigerians who may be experiencing difficulty in obtaining any of these documents from the country’s foreign missions to be a little patient.

@PS_MFANigeria tweeted: I issued a statement on the supply of Visa Stickers and Passport booklets to our Missions abroad. https://twitter.com/PS_MFANigeria/status/789762488938143745

— Sola Enikanolaiye October 22, 2016

Following this memo, there are reports that the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa is currently unable to issue visas for business, visitor or tourist applicants wishing to visit the country.

This is because the commission has run out of visa labels. Those seeking for visas into Nigeria are being turned back or asked to return at a future date. It was also gathered that the High Commission has advised people who are in desperate need to travel to Nigeria to contact Nigeria’s embassies or consulates in other nearest countries.

This “development” is a huge embarrassment to Nigeria, which has lost its place as the largest economy in the continent. It comes at the time when the country is grappling with ways to come out of a recession caused by fall in global oil prices. The level of investment in the country has also dropped drastically due to the uncertainties of the country’s economic policies.

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