Nigeria’s High Commissioner to India, Maj.-Gen. Chris Eze (Retd.), has appealed to the Indian government to reciprocate the issuance of work permit to Nigerians in the country.
Eze made the appeal while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria on the 60th anniversary of Nigeria-India relations and 58th Independence anniversary of Nigeria in Delhi, India.
He said that commission issues an average of 500 work permits to Indians per month to work in Nigeria, saying “it will be nice if some kind of reciprocity is returned”.
He said: “I keep telling them now that the world has been globalised and with globalisation, you cannot keep people out no matter how hard you try, you cannot kick people out.
“So, I keep asking them, do the much you can to give work permit to Nigerians who get educated here or who get skills to compete on the labour market, they could do that.
“Also, please give import licences; you cannot believe that when our women go to the market to buy Nigerian food, it is sold to them by Indians. You cannot imagine it, it is that restrictive.”
The envoy said that the consulate had been trying to address the challenge of closing opportunities to Nigerians who desire to work in India.
Eze, however, recalled the incident that made six Nigerian lost international job in India due to that policy of not allowing foreigners to work in the country.
He said: “They are six Nigerians that finished their education here and they were offered Jobs by an international Information Communication Technology Company.
“Apparently, it seems that they had some programmes they wanted to develop which they wanted to translate into Nigerian languages.
“They had to get work permit to take the job offer and they had to go to Nigeria to apply through the Indian High Commission.
“They applied and they called us and I called the High Commissioner myself, made a presentation to the Ministry of External Affairs. Sadly, noting came out of it.”
According to him, the consulate is advocating and sensitising all stakeholders that the aspect of the country’s relationship with India should be looked into.
In addition, Eze said that it was working to get information about Nigerians coming to India for various purposes.
He said: “Information is not usually timely from Nigerians who come. There is as at yet no institutional mechanism for us to know in advance about Nigerians that are coming here.
“The only people that can provide such mechanism are the airlines and the immigration authorities here.
“We are going to write to the immigration authority and ask them to be sending us the list of those who come and the purposes for which they are coming.
“Those coming to hospital, we put them under medical classification, (those for) business; we put them under that category.”
He, however, assured Nigerians living in India and those visiting of the readiness of the consulate to address their needs.
NAN reports that no fewer than 50 Memoranda of Understanding had been signed between the two countries since Nigeria-India diplomatic relations was established in 1958.
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