Lawyers, especially Senior Advocates of Nigeria, who spoke with Sunday PUNCH on Saturday, were divided over whether the visa-on-arrival policy needed the approval of the National Assembly.
A SAN, Sebastine Hon, said the President lacked the power to begin the implementation of the visa-on-arrival policy without it being first enacted into law by the National Assembly.
Hon said the implementation of the policy without the parliamentary validation through the making of a law would amount to usurping the powers of the National Assembly.
He said, “It falls outside the executive powers of the President. It falls within the Schedule to the Constitution that grants the National Assembly the legislative powers. So, it is something that is on the legislative list of the National Assembly of the Federal Government. It is the National Assembly alone that can take an action on such issue because it must first enact it into a law.
Another SAN, Ahmed Raji, however, argued that the National Assembly’s intervention was not required in the implementation of the policy, but queried the rationality of the policy.
He said, “I do not think executive powers require the intervention of the parliament. It is a policy for a particular purpose. But the question is, is it a desirable thing? If we allow everybody to come to Nigeria, is that what we need. Can’t we learn from the United Kingdom has gone through with the European Union which is not making them to opt out.
Another SAN, Yusuf Ali, said it was a policy and not a treaty. He stated that since it was a policy, it was within the confines of the executive arm of government to give directions without necessarily going through the National Assembly.
Another SAN, Mr Adeniyi Akintola, who urged the Federal Government to overhaul the nation’s foreign policy, said Nigeria’s foreign policies, currently, had no direction.
Policy has serious security implications for Nigeria – Experts
Meanwhile, speaking on the policy, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Prof Bola Akinterinwa, describing it as the worst policy he had seen.
He explained that it was a wrong time for Nigeria to take such a decision, especially when agents and mercenaries of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria had just been dislodged from Syria and could be on their way to Africa to join forces with their ally, Boko Haram, in West African.
He said, “Why would any reasonable government want to facilitate the entry of all manner of people. The criterion is if the person holds a passport issued by an African country. Many of these people (terrorists) have no fewer than two to three passports, and don’t forget that these days some countries are said to be aiding and abetting Boko Haram.
“This is the worst and very myopic policy that I have seen as a professional student, because it does not render any help in protecting our national integrity. I do not know whether the situation we find ourselves is truly redeemable with this kind of policy.”
Also, an aviation security expert and former Military Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Group Capt John Ojikutu (retd.), said the policy could break the standing rules on Aviation Security Defence Layers if the Immigration is the only government agency involved.
He said the National Intelligence Agency should share information with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, which would, in turn, share the information received with airport’s security network.
Citing the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, who was convicted of attempting to detonate plastic explosives while flying from Amsterdam to Michigan on December 25, 2009, Ojikutu said Umar might not have sailed through if intelligence agencies work together with Civil Aviation Security authorities and the airlines.
He added, “It would be expected that the passenger’s home country would share some knowledge of the passenger with the airlines and the country of their destination, in this case Nigeria, before their departure at all times.
“Airports are border areas and there is nothing yet stated that the visa on arrival passengers would get any enhanced security checks by the state security agencies or at the departure airports.”
Read more: https://punchng.com/fg-ignores-senate-begins-visa-on-arrival-policy-for-africans/
