Senator Ali Ndume has spoken out about the recent decision by the Canadian Embassy to deny visas to Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, and several senior military officers.

The incident occurred when General Musa and other members of the military delegation were unable to attend an event in Canada honoring war veterans.

While some members of the delegation received their visas, others, including Musa, had their applications rejected.

This caused anger among some Nigerians, including National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, who responded by telling the Canadian embassy to “Go to hell.”

However, Chidi Odinkalu, a former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, criticized the military officers and Ribadu. He questioned why 70 officers were needed to attend the event in Canada.

On a recent appearance on Channels TV, Senator Ndume acknowledged that the visa denial was disrespectful to Nigeria but emphasized that Nigerians must also learn to respect themselves.

’There is no doubt that that is a kind of disrespect to Nigeria but you have to respect yourself first. I can’t imagine it. How can the CDS of Nigeria, a country that is known and most populous and ranked top and we have been contributing to international engagement, be denied visa, what they wanted to do was to go and attend an event. I can understand why the NSA was very angry but for me, like I said, let’s be Nigerians. I don’t go anywhere and I am a Senator for the past 20 years. I don’t need to go anywhere. Nigeria is my country. We have everything. We don’t need to embarrass ourselves.”