Why Did Canada Deny Visas to the CDS and Other Officials?

Yesterday, it was revealed that the Canadian Embassy did not give visas to Nigeria’s top military leader, General Christopher Musa, and other high-ranking officers because of a mistake in paperwork. These officers forgot to include a special diplomatic note, called a Note Verbale, which is usually needed for such trips.

The Nigerian government is now trying to fix this mistake. A high-ranking official, who wanted to stay anonymous, said that the people who handled the visa applications forgot to add the Note Verbale. This note should have shown that the trip was officially approved and safe.

Amid these issues, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, was very upset with Canada for not giving visas to these military leaders. He spoke strongly about this at a security event in Abuja. Ribadu wants Nigeria to be respected more by other countries.

General Musa said that he and his team were supposed to go to Canada for an event to honour war veterans, but they couldn’t because of the visa problem. He was disappointed but mentioned that sometimes disappointments can be good.

The Nigerian government is talking to the Canadian Embassy to try to sort out the problem. Ribadu and others are working to make sure Nigeria is treated better internationally because of this incident.