Chinalurumogu Eze, an award-winning journalist, has been denied a visa by the France Embassy in Abuja to attend the Cannes Lion Festival scheduled for Monday, 19, to Friday, June 23 2023.
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields.
It is considered the largest gathering in the advertising and creative communications industry.
In April, Eze won the 2023 Future Creative Leaders Academy (FCLA) Prize for the Roger Hatchuel Student Academy.
The academy, a youth programme for tertiary institution students, provides a platform for talent discovery and professional development in the advertising and marketing communications sector.
The participants were asked to create a two-minute video to showcase their creativity and explain why they deserve a place in the Roger Hatchuel Student Academy, reserved for only 30 select students worldwide.
Her feat attracted a congratulatory message from Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi.
On Monday, June 5, she announced on Twitter that she would not be attending the Festival due to the actions of the French Embassy in the Nigerian capital.
“It breaks my heart to announce to the general public and my principal, HE Peter Obi, that the France Embassy in Abuja refused my visa to travel and represent Nigeria in France.
“It’s been a crazy and shitty couple of days since the refusal letter. Certainly, the future holds more for me, and this is one of the challenges I’ll use to embellish my success story in due time,” she wrote on the micro-blogging platform.
Her tweet sparked outrage on Twitter, with many Nigerians condemning the action of the French Embassy.
Samson Akinola wrote:
“It’s high time Nigerians need to be suing these embassies because most of the reasons they refuse doesn’t make any sense.”
Mariam Akbar had some questions:
“I don’t understand. So despite the importance of the travel and all the evidence, you were still rejected?! I thought the academy would give extended support letter etc.) to facilitate visa approval?”
Chinedu Anarado tweeted at the embassy:
”Dear @FranceInNigeria, it is important to review this case again. Some intents to travel are genuine and could be the difference between someone’s career taking off.”
In December 2022, Eze won the Youth Digest Campus Journalist of the Year award, thus becoming the first student to bring the prize to a South-East Nigeria university, UNN, and emerging as the second female winner.
