A false promise of direct flights between Lagos and São Paulo has alarmed Nigerians residing in Brazil.
They claimed that the Nigerian airline Air Peace and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration had promised direct flights, leaving them stuck and in financial trouble.
The irate Nigerians told Sahara Reporters that the widely reported Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Nigerian government and Brazil in August 2025 raised high expectations among the Nigerian community in South America, especially with regard to the promise of an Air Peace-operated direct flight from Lagos to São Paulo.
Nevertheless, nothing has happened even months after the agreement was extensively reported in the media and hailed by government authorities.
The aforementioned journal was informed by one Nigerian living in Brazil that the entire arrangement was dishonest from the start.
“The Memorandum of Understanding that the Tinubu government signed with Brazil in August is a huge hoax, and they merely gave us Nigerians who live there false optimism. It was all untrue.
“In particular, Air Peace’s direct flights between Sao Paulo and Lagos. Nigerians were paying up to $1,500 to travel from Nigeria to Brazil before they arrived to trick us. The reason for this was that there was no direct flight. In order to reach Brazil, we always travel via Addis Ababa, South Africa, and Europe.
When the Air Peace Chairman brought his flight that time, it gave us false optimism. The Nigerian resident in Brazil stated, “He promised us that the flight would start properly in November 2025 and he would reduce the flight price by 50% because it is a direct flight of about six to seven hours.”
The source claims that many Nigerians in Brazil postponed their vacation plans after receiving guarantees from government officials and the airline, while others started getting ready for business trips to Nigeria since they thought cheaper, faster direct flights would soon be available.
Many of us trusted them, which caused us to schedule our travels in advance. Since we do a lot of business in Nigeria, we believed the government was telling the truth,” the person stated.
Instead, neither Air Peace nor the Nigerian government have provided a flight, an official statement, or an explanation months after the anticipated November 2025 timeframe.
We are now stranded. As February draws near, Air Peace has not taken any action. Regarding that, there is no communication. Without an official response from the government or Air Peace, a large number of students are stuck here, the source continued.
Particularly for students and small business owners who had planned their affairs around the expected straight route, members of the Nigerian community in Brazil said the situation has put them under extreme financial and psychological hardship.
Some revealed that they rejected other travel options in anticipation of the promised cheaper direct flight, only to discover that they could not afford the current, expensive connecting flights.
“The Nigerian government has previously taken similar actions. I’ve lived in Brazil for more than thirty years. Every administration continually promises to provide us with direct flights to Nigeria, but this is a lie. However, the government’s excessive celebration of this victory is what made Tinubu’s administration so concerning, according to a different source.
