Onyeama stated this on Monday during his ministerial screening and confirmation with the Nigerian Senate.
He said: “We know there are a lot of Nigerians in the diaspora who would love to come back but they don’t know how to go about it.
“We know of many challenges Nigerians are facing around the world: xenophobia, shops being shut, human trafficking, Nigerians in (foreign) prison, Nigerians looking for visas and passport renewals; we have seen the reactions of some Nigerians when they are confronted with obstacles in Nigerian embassies.
“We have started to create a 24/7 helpdesk for all Nigerians anywhere in the world that they can contact. The helpdesk will route the information to the necessary officials to speed up the action and it will ensure that
Nigerians providing services in our embassies know that there is some oversight”, says the ex-Minister for Foreign Affair.”
On Xenophobic attack, Onyeama stated that there is a trust deficit between South African police and Nigerians
“I went personally to South Africa, met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs there and the Nigerian Union of South Africa, viewed some of the places that had been burnt during the last xenophobic attack.
“I met with the consul-general and what I saw immediately was there was a trust deficit between the South African police and Nigerians,”
Commenting on the issue of Xenophobic attack, Senate President Ahmad Lawan stated that the killing of Nigerians in South Africa is not acceptable.
According to him, he has for requested that names of Nigerians killed in South Africa.
Lawan promised that required steps would be taken as he also asked Onyeama what he would do differently to stop the killings of Nigeria in South Africa.
