Apart from the high fares Nigerians have to pay to travel to other countries, Nigerians holding green passports are faced with another problem of experiencing visa-on-arrival denials from several countries as a result of the ‘devaluation’ of the passports globally.
In a recently released third quarter Henley Passport Index,
which is an authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the
number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa, Nigeria
takes the bottom spot as a country with one of the 20 worst passports to hold
in 2023 with visa-free access to only 46 countries.
Naziru Mikail Abubakar who recently travelled from Abuja to
the Swedish city of Gothenburg to attend the 2023 Global Investigative
Journalism Conference (GIJC), narrated his experience.
He arrived in Istanbul at 6.30 a.m. local time, he said he
rushed to the Turkish Airlines ticketing desk to change his ticket to the next
available flight to Gothenburg, and then the drama began.
Abubakar said he was surprised to discover his passport no
longer allows him to obtain a Turkish e-visa, a seamless process he often
experienced before.
He said the passport has also forfeited numerous privileges
that holders once enjoyed in various countries.
Just like Turkey, several countries have stop granting
holders of Nigerian passport visa on arrival or e visas, making travel options
for tourists and travellers from Nigeria limited.
Last year, Ethiopia stopped issuing visa-on-arrival for
Nigerian citizens.
In a circular by Ethiopian Airlines to passengers on
Tuesday, it stated that effective immediately, there will be no more visa on
arrival for Nigerian citizens.
The airline stated that passengers are to obtain their visa
at Ethiopian embassy in Abuja before travelling.
“Passengers transiting overnight in Addis Ababa are not
affected by the ban. Passengers having layover in Addis to travel the next
morning to Zanzibar, Seychelles, Lusaka, Lilongwe, Harare, Cape Town etc are
not affected by the ban and do not need transit visa for their trips,” the
airline stated.
Applications for visas to South Africa have since reduced as
Nigerians continue to experience delays and denials to South Africa
After Nigeria, other countries with worse passports include
South Sudan with 46 visa free access to countries, Congo 45 countries, Eritrea
44 countries, Iran 44 countries, Sudan 44 countries, Lebanon 43 countries,
Kosovo 42 countries, Libya 41 countries, Sri Lanka 41 countries, Bangladesh 40
countries, North Korea 39 countries, Nepal 38 countries, Palestinian Terr 38
countries, Somalia 35 countries, Yemen 35 countries, Pakistan 33 countries,
Syria 30 countries, Iraq 29 countries, and Afghanistan countries.
Singapore now has the world’s most powerful passport. The
Lion City beat Japan, whose passport had been the most powerful for over five
years.
Henley Passport Index revealed a major shake-up, with
Germany, Italy and Spain coming in second and Japan sharing the third rank with
six other countries.
The most powerful passports in the world, according to
Henley Passport Index are as follows:
Singapore — visa-free access to 192 countries
Germany, Italy and Spain — visa-free access to 190 countries
Austria, Finland, France, Japan, Luxembourg, South Korea and
Sweden — visa-free access to 189 countries.
Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands and the United Kingdom —
visa-free access to 188 countries
Belgium, Czech Republic, Malta, New Zealand, Norway,
Portugal and Switzerland — visa-free access to 187 countries.
Australia, Hungary and Poland — visa-free access to 186
countries.
Canada and Greece — visa-free access to 185 countries.
Lithuania and the United States — visa-free access to 184
countries
Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia — visa-free access to 183
countries
Estonia and Iceland — visa-free access to 182 countries.