FG Moves to Review Bilateral Relations with Some African Countries

The federal government is considering reviewing its bilateral relations with some African countries that have refused to approve the operations of Nigerian airlines to destinations in their places, while they are allowed to fly to Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has disclosed. Over the years, Nigeria’s diplomatic philosophy has been Afrocentric, whereby the country gives a lot of concessions to African countries by making it easy for airlines from the continent to fly to Nigerian destinations without hindrances.

However, these nations in the efforts to protect their own airlines do not equally reciprocate Nigeria’s gestures by allowing Nigerian airlines to also operate to theirs. According to air traffic regulations in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), every country in West Africa should have direct fight from its capital to Abuja, the headquarters of the sub-regional body and also the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, but some African countries refuse to give Nigerian airlines approval when they request to connect these countries to Nigerian destinations like Lagos and Abuja.