NIGERIA-- 20 NATIONS ISSUE TRAVEL WARNINGS

 NIGERIA’S failing security situation is causing a global sense of frustration and there is fear of possible isolation, judging from western nations’ responses to the increasing wave of terror attacks in the country.


Following significant negative media attention on an international scale, about 20 countries have advised their citizens to stay away from Nigeria, mostly due to last week’s terror attacks. Even at the United Nations, where Nigeria is currently holding the gavel as this month’s President of the Security Council, there is a sense of frustration, as four major official statements criticised the state of insecurity in Nigeria.




Diplomatic sources also hinted that Ogwu, the Nigeria’s Permanent Representative and notable female Ambassador in the UN community in New York, has had to shoulder the frustrating responsibility of chairing the Security Council with the burden of knowing her own country itself is a major international security concern. Not surprisingly, it is believed that Ogwu’s moral authority as Council President has been severely weakened by the rising threat of Boko Haram terrorism during Nigeria’s presidency rotation this month.


In its current travel advisory on Nigeria, the US government categorically warned its citizens, recommending that “US citizens avoid all travel to Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.” The US government further added that the security situation in Nigeria “remains fluid and unpredictable.”

From the Australian government also came, this week, an updated travel warning to its citizens against going to Nigeria. According to the statement from the Australian Foreign Affairs and Trade Department, an updated warning against Nigeria was issued last Tuesday April 15, a day after the Nyanya bus stop bombing.


The situation is the same in the United Kingdom. On April 16, two days after the Nyanya attack, the UK government also updated its travel warning to its citizens ruling out all travel by its citizens to Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, and Gombe states.



At the European Union, several other western nations have also asked its citizens to avoid travel to Nigeria. They are France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.

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