Report says FG evacuated stranded citizens with N4.5bn in five years

The Federal Government has spent about N4,497,469,900 evacuating Nigerians stranded in foreign countries during crisis.

The sum could be more as the amount spent on citizens’ repatriation in some cases was not stated.

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The amount, which is in dollars, was converted at the official rate of N461.

In 2018, the Federal Government evacuated more than 100 Nigerians who were stranded in Russia after the 2018 World Cup.

Although the amount spent on the exercise was not disclosed, according to trip.com, a flight booking website, the economy class flights from Moscow to Lagos cost between $559 and $761. This implies that $55,900 was spent to bring the citizens home.

Also, over 10,000 persons were evacuated by the Federal Government from China, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other European countries in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The amount spent on this was not also disclosed. But since they were not evacuated from the same country, it was difficult to imply the amount spent.

Similarly, about 5,000 stranded Nigerians were airlifted from Ukraine in 2022 and were given $100 each upon their return. The FG approved $8.5m for the evacuation. Also last year, some Nigerians were evacuated from Northern Cyrus. Their numbers and cost were not stated.

The most recent being the returnees from Sudan, in which a total of 506 Nigerians have returned, while 1,700 more are expected to arrive in the country.

The total amount for the evacuation is unknown, but it is in public domain that the government spent $1.2m on bus fare to evacuate stranded Nigerians from Sudan to Egypt’s borders.

Besides, many Nigerians trafficked to different countries, including Libya, were repatriated to the country within the period under review.

Although some private companies especially airlines supported the government in the exercise, in the long run, these private entities might get soft landings either in the form of tax cuts, waivers, or subventions.

A public affairs analyst, Busari Dauda, said though the money spent might be huge, the lives of the affected citizens were more important. Punch