Festus Keyamo, the minister for aviation and aerospace management, had rushed to the Middle Eastern nation on Sunday night to meet with the President, who was making a stopover after leaving the G20 conference in India.

Speaking with our correspondent, Festus Keyamo, SAN, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, said that he left on Sunday night and that officials from the two nations will meet at 5 p.m. today.

“I am in Abu Dhabi to join Mr President to sort out the twin issues of Dubai visas and Emirates flights to Nigeria. Both leaders are meeting by 5 pm Today,” the minister said 

According to news reports, the UAE banned Nigerians from entering without a visa in October 2022, not long after Emirates Airlines halted service to that country. According to reports, the action was taken in retaliation for Nigeria's failure to return billions of dollars in trapped assets.

A similar suspension of service was made by the Nigerian airline Air Peace, which was also operating in Dubai, as a result of the UAE's decision to stop issuing visas to potential tourists.

The President demanded that problems affecting relations with Emirates Airline and the issuance of visas to Nigerians be "immediately" resolved when he hosted Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi, the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, at Aso Rock last month, stressing that he stands ready to "personally" intervene.

“We are a family in the UAE, we only live in separate rooms, but we are in the same house. We should look at the issues as a family problem, and resolve it amicably. As you know in every family, there are peculiarities. You can have an erring son or daughter, but we must work together. We need to agree on core aviation and immigration issues,” the President had said.