Libya: Nigerians not evacuated opted to stay back—Minister

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Gbenga Ashiru

Libya: Nigerians not evacuated opted to stay back—Minister
Latifat Afegbua, Abuja

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Gbenga Ashiru on Wednesday explained that Nigerians who were still left in troubled Libya opted out to do so against the Nigerian government efforts to evacuate them.

Tendering explanations on the plight of Nigerians after the fall of Colonel Muamar Ghaddafi’s government and efforts by the Federal Government to evacuate its nationals, the Minister told the Nnena Elendu-Ukeje led House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs that the Federal Government responded promptly by sending chattered aircrafts which evacuated about 5,000 people in the first instance.

Another 1,000 were said to be later evacuated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Personal decision

“Unfortunately, while government can provide aircraft to evacuate those Nigerians willing to leave, it cannot coerce or force those not willing to be evacuated. Thus, in spite of the aircrafts dispatch to evacuate them, some of our nationals in defence of their human rights and rights to personal decision made the choice to remain in that country”, the Minister asserted.

According to him, the Nigerian government's immediate concern as regards Libya was for the establishment of a free democratic dispensation in that country.

He noted that “continued unrest would certainly spread the conflict abroad, and would lead to proliferation of weapons which would destabilise the entire Sahel region, and percolate into our own shores.”

In addition, Ashiru reaffirmed Nigerian government's concern for the safety and welfare of migrant workers, especially Nigerians “who seemed to have been the object of unjustified and blind reprisals in the wake of the unrests in Libya”, and Nigeria's desire to seek better ties with the new government in Libya.

Lead position

Ashiru admitted that the current situation in Libya presented a foreign policy challenge to Nigeria.

He however defended Nigeria’s early recognition of Libya's National Transition Council (NTC) after the ousting of Ghaddafi.

He added that many countries had looked up to Nigeria to take the lead position, especially at the time when the African Union (AU) was indecisive on the situation in Libya.

“The situation in Libya presented a foreign policy challenge of urgent magnitude, the response to which had to be carefully calibrated and weighed in the balance of prudence and national interest. The fluidity of the situation, with events changing literally by the hour also needed to be appreciated,” Ashiru stated.

Earlier in his remarks, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ukeje said that the meeting was at the instance of the House following a September 15, 2011 resolution on a motion that mandated her committee to seek clarifications on the plight of Nigerians in the wake of the crisis in Libya and ascertain the efforts by the Fedral Government to evacuate its citizens resident in Libya.