Why we placed travel restrictions on Nigerians —US
Trump
The United States has given reasons for imposing visa restrictions on Nigerians and five other countries’ nationals.
The US also said Nigeria did not adequately share public-safety and terrorism-related information necessary for the protection of the national security and public safety of the US.
The full report of the visa restrictions titled, ‘Proclamation on improving enhanced vetting capabilities and process’ posted in www.whitehouse.gov read in part, “Nigeria also presents a high risk, relative to other countries in the world, of terrorist travel to the United States. Nigeria is an important strategic partner in the global fight against terrorism, and the United States continues to engage with Nigeria on these and other issues.”
It further stated, “The Department of State has provided significant assistance to Nigeria as it modernises its border management capabilities, and the Government of Nigeria recognises the importance of improving its information sharing with the United States.
“Nevertheless, these investments have not yet resulted in sufficient improvements in Nigeria’s information sharing with the United States for border and immigration screening and vetting.”
Nigeria is the only country in West Africa sanctioned by the US Department of Home Security following a review and update of the methodology (performance metrics).
Other countries on the list are Eritrea, Myanmar, Tanzania, Sudan and Kyrgyzstan.
The new visa regime announced by the US government on January 31, involves the suspension of the issuance of immigrant visas to Nigerian passport holders. It comes into effect on February 21.
Strong reactions have, however, greeted the US visa restrictions with the Presidency announcing the setting up of a committee to address the issue.
The committee is chaired by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, a State House statement said on Saturday.
“The committee will work with the US government, INTERPOL and other stakeholders to ensure all updates are properly implemented,” the statement by the media aide to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Mr Femi Adesina, said.
However, the Presidency noted that the restrictions did not affect other categories of visas like official, tourism or business visas.
The Presidency’s reaction to the development read in part, “On January 31, 2020, the United States Department of Homeland Security announced temporary travel restrictions on six countries including Nigeria.
“For Nigeria, it is the suspension of the issuance of ‘immigrant visas’ to Nigerian passport holders only.
“Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and its allies, especially on matters of global security. Accordingly, President Muhammadu Buhari has established a committee to be chaired by the Minister of Interior to study and address the updated US requirements.”
The Senate condemned the inclusion of Nigeria on the list of countries under US visa restrictions and promised to spearhead a diplomatic arrangement in collaboration with the relevant agencies with a view to addressing the issues advanced by the US for the ban.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, who described the US travel ban on Nigeria as “quite unfortunate” in an interview in Abuja, however, stressed the need for Nigeria to put in place citizenship integrity mechanism.
He said, “We need to address the issue of citizenship integrity because, at the moment, we are a nation of anonymous citizens. We don’t have records of our citizens and anybody can claim to be a Nigerian.
“We don’t have recognised records to be sure that anybody carrying a Nigerian passport is actually a Nigerian.
“I am not talking as a politician but as a patriot. We need as a government to address the issue of citizenship integrity. We should have a proper record of birth registration and identification of our citizens.”
The Senate spokesman described the ban as “a wake-up call”, noting that it would spur the nation to take seriously the national identity card project.
Basiru added, “The travel ban is a wake-up call, a rude one at that on the need for us to be alive to our responsibility to our people and ensure that we have citizenship integrity.
“We have been working on the national identity project for a very long time, and till today, I am not sure that we have 25 per cent of Nigerians on the database. Are we even sure that we conducted a proper integrity test on those that on the database to ensure that they are real Nigerians?”
Trump’s travel ban discriminatory -US Speaker
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, also condemned the US policy, describing it as “discrimination disguised as policy”.
In a statement on her verified Twitter handle, @SpeakerPelosi, she said, “The Trump administration’s expansion of its outrageous, un-American travel ban threatens our security, our values and the rule of law.
“The sweeping rule, barring more than 350 million individuals from predominantly African nations from travelling to the United States, is discrimination disguised as policy.”
The Speaker, however, said the House of Representatives would, in the coming weeks, bring to the floor of the congress legislation to prohibit “religious discrimination” in the country’s immigration system and “limit the President’s ability to impose such biased and bigoted restrictions.”
The statement added, “In the congress and in the courts, House Democrats will continue to oppose the administration’s dangerous anti-immigrant agenda. We will never allow hatred or bigotry to define our nation or destroy our values.”
It’s a wake-up call to Nigeria, Kingibe, Atiku, Duke, others
A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babagana Kingibe, said nothing had changed as the restriction would help strengthen the country’s national security.
He noted that the US-listed six categories of reforms for Nigeria to meet, stressing that only three were met.
According to him, Nigeria will assume its previous status if the conditions are met eventually.
He said, “We have implemented three of the six (reforms) and we are in the process of implementing the remaining three. The presumption is that once these three reforms are implemented, then the policy does not apply to Nigerians who wish to immigrate to the US.
“So, I think it should not be blown up to something which it is not. It is in our national security interest to implement the reforms required. It is about information sharing, lost passports, and stolen passports, among others.”
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar urged Trump to punish those responsible for the immigrant visa ban on Nigerians and reconsider the ban.
He said the ban did not take into account the pro-American sentiments of the Nigerian public and the solidarity previous Nigerian administrations have had with the US.
He said he understood the reasons given by the US for the ban, which are the alleged failure of the Buhari government to share information and to address issues of terrorism.
In his statement titled, “US travel ban on Nigeria: Punish those responsible, not the Nigerian people’, Atiku said, “I urge the Donald Trump government to consider the history of US-Nigerian relationships. Nigeria was one of the few African nations that joined the US-led coalition during the Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991 when the US championed the liberation of Kuwait.”
Ex-Cross River State governor Donald Duke said the visa ban was a wake-up call to Nigeria to start putting things in the right perspectives.
Duke said, “You cannot blame the United States for this decision, because there was a time Nigeria formed one per cent of the immigrant population in the US but committed 10 per cent of the immigrant crimes. We now have an administration in the US that is determined to put the US first.”
He stated that Nigerians love the United States and had been a major force in the positive development of the US.
