A bogus offer of direct flights between Lagos and São Paulo has alarmed Nigerians residing in Brazil.
They alleged that Nigerian airline Air Peace and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration had promised direct flights, leaving them stuck and in financial hardship.
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 regarding the promise of an Air Peace-operated direct flight from Lagos to São Paulo.
But nothing has happened several months after the deal was hailed by public officials and extensively reported in the media.
The aforementioned journal was informed by a Nigerian living in Brazil that the entire arrangement was dishonest from the start.
“The Memorandum of Understanding that the Tinubu administration signed with Brazil in August is a huge hoax, and they just gave us Nigerians who live there false optimism. Everything was a lie.
Specifically, the fact that Air Peace operates direct flights from Lagos to Sao Paulo. Nigerians were paying up to $1,500 to travel from Nigeria to Brazil before they arrived to trick us. The lack of a direct flight was the reason for this. Every time we travel to Brazil, we pass through Europe, South Africa, and Addis Ababa.
When he brought his flight that time, the Air Peace Chairman offered 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 6 to 7 hours.”
The source claims that guarantees from the airline and government officials caused many Nigerians in Brazil to put off their travel plans, while others started getting ready for business visits to Nigeria because they thought cheaper, faster direct flights would soon be available.
Many of us trusted them, which prompted us to schedule our travels in advance. We believed the government was telling the truth since we do a lot of business in Nigeria,” the person stated.
Instead, neither Air Peace nor the Nigerian government have offered a flight, an official statement, or an explanation months after the November 2025 timeline was promised.
We’re stuck now. February is almost here, and Air Peace has done nothing. It is not communicated. The source continued, “Many kids are stuck here with no official reaction from Air Peace or the government.
Nigerians living in Brazil, particularly students and small business owners who had planned their affairs around the expected direct path, claim that the situation has severely strained their finances and emotions.
Some revealed that they rejected other travel options in anticipation of the promised cheaper direct flight, only to discover that they couldn’t afford the current, expensive connecting flights.
The Nigerian government has already carried out similar actions. I’ve spent more than thirty years in Brazil. Every government arrives with the delusion of providing us with direct flights to Nigeria. However, the government’s excessive celebration of this victory is what made Tinubu’s administration so concerning, according to another source.
