The American Embassy in Abuja is foot-dragging in issuing visas to members of the national team the Super Eagles preparing for the international friendly against Venezuela in Miami in the United States on November 14.
The experience has caused palpable fears for the team with the Senate President David Mark and Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdulahi, having to intervene in the matter to ensure that Super Eagles players and officials get the needed travel documents for the trip on Sunday. The two top government officials are said to be pulling the strings at the highest diplomatic level to ensure that the November 14 game materializes.
Team Media Officer Ben Alaiya said the Ministry of External Affairs had tried to make the issuance of the visas easy for the Eagles by issuing a 'Note Verba' for the team to the USA Embassy, but that was rejected, as officials of the embassy reportedly said the team was not entitled to such diplomatic treatment.
The Embassy has therefore fixed Friday, November 9 for the team to appear at its consulate for visa interviews while the team is scheduled to travel out on Sunday, November 11.
The anxiety in the camp of the team is that the visas may not be ready same day to the team which may upset travel plans already put in place by the NFF for the first international friendly after the team's qualification for the SA 2013 Nations Cup.
Comments Post a comment
Does this even make sense? These are professional players, who have travelled extensively, plying their trade. Yet, the US embassy views them as potential risks of living illegally in the USA. A country deep in debt, with severe social problems, is not a place anyone with marketable skills would want to risk his/her future. If he/she is sensible, at least. The USA is not all it is made out to be, especially in the African media. I dare to assert, that many countries in Africa are by many miles better to live in than the best counties in the US, taking into account certain pros and cons. Americans need to get off their high horses and back into reality. If it wasn`t for the corrupt, rudderless and reckless leaders we have been saddled with for the last few decades they, the Americans, should be begging us for VISAs, not the other way around. To add to that, despite the shortcomings, vices and recklessness of African leaders, Africa`s potential still stands solid, where a place like Europe for example would have buckled. Even the Americas, for that matter!
I just hope that they put a stop to this nonsense soon, else it will come back and bite them severely. I think decades of good fortune has made them complacent, and forgetful of the great depression they experienced in the 1940`s.