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Married women no longer need husband’s written consent to travel abroad, NDLEA says

THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has removed the requirement for a married woman to present a letter of approval from her husband to travel outside Nigeria.

The NDLEA disclosed in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, on Thursday, October 10, that the portion that stated the requirement had been deleted from its list.

In the statement, the NDLEA clarified that the process for obtaining visa clearance from the NDLEA, which is a requirement for certain countries, is currently under review.

It noted that the previous requirement for married women to provide a letter of approval from their husbands for travel was no longer considered mandatory.

“The inclusion of that item arose following some ugly developments in some source countries. Members of the public are assured that the item has been deleted from the list of requirements in the ongoing review exercise, which will be made public in the coming days,” the anti-drug agency stated.

The action followed discussions on social media about why Nigerian married women needed their husband’s written permission to travel out of the country.

The NDLEA previously required Nigerian married women to obtain a letter of approval from their husbands before issuing a visa clearance certificate to travel abroad. This requirement was part of the documents needed for visa clearance.

The requirement is a component of an international initiative to lower the incidence of drug trafficking.



The nations requesting this include Brazil, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Russia.

According to a statement by the NDLEA in 2021 when the requirement was introduced, the policy did not apply to all Nigerians seeking to travel overseas but those travelling to the eight countries listed above, usually referred to as “source countries.”




     

     

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    The statement added that the policy was at the order of the “source countries” and not that of the NDLEA or Nigeria and was designed as part of global efforts to fight the threat of drug trafficking.

    Nigerians who criticised the requirements included some X users. Among them was Big Chief Wendy who said, “NDLEA’s visa clearance requires that a married woman bring a letter of approval to travel from her husband along with his passport photograph. There is no such rule for men. This is such disgusting government-sponsored misogyny. Are married women children?!”

    Another X user, @KvngFids, tweeted, “The ‘anyhowness’ of Nigeria is so funny because why is NDLEA demanding spousal approval for travel? What’s the correlation? In 2024. So backwards.”

    Another X user @KatwignDale stated, “Wait, a husband’s approval to travel? Thankfully, NDLEA says this outdated idea has been scrapped via an official public notice on its Instagram page. Let’s continue the fight for equality in law and practice.”

    Bankole Abe

    A reporter with the ICIR
    A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance

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