The travel ban by the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and other countries has sparked a big row between Nigeria and some western nations.

In a retaliatory move, Nigeria yesterday announced plans to halt commercial flights from the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Argentina into its airspace from today or tomorrow.

The UK, which had on December 4 added Nigeria to its red list, imposed the travel ban to curtail the spread of the Omicron variant of Coronavirus. A few days after, Canada, Argentina, ad Saudi Arabia followed suit.

On Wednesday, The Nation exclusively reported that Nigeria was weighing options against the UK, including retaliatory action, if UK authorities failed to immediately reverse the ban.

Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed last Thursday said it was up to the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 to announce an appropriate response to the flight restrictions by the four countries.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who is also a member of the PSC, said in an audio recording shared with reporters in Lagos that airlines from the four countries have lost the moral right to fly into Nigeria.