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.
Tunji-Ojo, while briefing reporters on Friday, said the action by the Canadian embassy is condemnable and shows lack of respect for Nigeria as a country.
The minister further questioned how an average Nigerian would be treated by the Canadian embassy if the Chief of Defence Staff were disrespected in that way.
He stressed 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.
“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.
