Former Nigerian Ambassador to France and Monaco, Ambassador Akin Fayomi has stated that there was nothing wrong with the travel advisory issued by the U.S. and United Kingdom embassies in Nigeria to their nationals.

He however noted that the Federal Government should focus more on handling the numerous insecurity challenges facing the country rather than being adversarial to normal travel advisory.

Responding to a comment credited to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed over the travel advisory, which has generated various reactions, Fayomi said the two embassies acted within their rights as it is their duty to look after the welfare and security of their nationals in Nigeria.

‘‘Any embassy of a country is more than empowered to is-sue travel advisories to its citizens even if we do that abroad in our missions when there are issues needed for us to warn our nationals,’’ Fayomi said.

‘‘There is absolutely nothing wrong in U.S. and UK embassies issuing advisories to their nationals. It is not to Nigerians, they were sent to their citizens residing in Nigeria. Their number one interest is to protect the welfare of their citizens in a receiving state and they are here and they can see what is going on.

‘‘They have all the rights to do that and it doesn’t contravene the Geneva Convention or diplomatic or consular relations. Every country is sup-posed to protect the interest of its citizens wherever they are resident.’’

The Federal Government, according to him; ‘‘has no reason to react negatively the way that they have done. Rather than react they could simply just have deflected it and say, well, that is okay.’’

Fayomi condemned the adversarial posture of the federal government, stating that; ‘‘There is nothing to be adversarial about.’’

Phones and Tablets
On whether the minister was right in describing the advisory as scaremongering, the former envoy said; ‘‘Well, I won’t say the minister is right or wrong but what I know is that the minister could have handled it by deflecting it to say this advisory is not for our citizens but for their citizens and he can leave it at that. There is no need to make a song and dance about it. It is not necessary.’’

He also noted that the is-sue is not enough to cause any diplomatic row, saying; ‘‘Not at all. It is just a case of them making their point and our minister has made his point. That is all. Everybody will ignore each other.

“There are more import-ant things happening, let us take care of the insecurity. Whether you are Nigerian or foreigner on our soil you must be protected and I think that is what the security agencies are already doing. That is why they said they are on top of the situation. So let’s leave them to do their work.’’