Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa, has banned Nigerian passport holders from visiting the country.
This revelation was made known from a Twitter post of a Nigerian visa seeker who was informed officially that Nigerian passport holders were no longer allowed in the country.
This is a strange and worrying development as Seychelles is located in Africa and is applying this extreme measure against a fellow African nation.
Recall that the United Arab Emirates had applied same visa ban on Nigerians after repeated reports of Nigerians misbehaving and constituting a nuisance in the middle eastern country. This situation was compounded with the stoppage of direct air links between the country by Emirates Airlines and subsequently, Air Peace, a Nigerian flagged airline.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari had even tried to intervene with an order to the Central Bank of Nigeria to release trapped foreign currency earnings to Emirates Airlines to help ease the diplomatic tensions. The efforts yielded no positive results and the UAE visa ban still subsists till today.
Similarly, there have been reports of up to eight Nigerians apprehended in the Seychelles for drug related offenses in the last 3 months.
With this new development, Nigerian passport holders would be denied entry into one of the most coveted holiday destinations.
The Seychelles is home to numerous exotic beaches, coral reefs and nature reserves, as well as rare animals such as giant Aldabra tortoises. The country also boasts numerous plush resorts that attracts tourists from all over the world.
Here is the post from the Twitter user @aa1_austin
See Seychelles o! 😳😳
Nobody rejects a treasure. We’ve been blacklisted even in our own continent. This is a direct effect of the kind of leadership we support and defend.
