President Muhammadu BuharI has constituted a committee headed by Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola to study the immigration ban on Nigeria by the United States (US).
The President Donald Trump’s government had on Friday listed Nigeria among the six Africa countries under a fresh immigration visa ban. Femi Adesina special adviser on media and publicity said despite the ban “Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and its international allies especially on matters of global security”, adding that “President Muhammadu Buhari has established a committee, to be chaired by the Hon. Minister of Interior, to study and address the updated U.S. requirements”.
Adesina said “The committee will work with the U.S Government, INTERPOL and other stakeholders to ensure all updates are properly implemented”.
The Presidential spokesman further stated that “For Nigeria, the restriction is the suspension of the issuance of “immigrant visas” to Nigerian passport holders only. This suspension shall come into effect on 21st February 2020. The suspension does not apply to other U.S visas such as those for official, business, tourism and student travel”.
On 31st January 2020, the United States (U.S) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced temporary travel restrictions on six (6) countries including Nigeria.
The DHS states the suspension of “immigrant visas” became necessary following a review and update of the methodology (performance metrics) adopted by the U.S Government to assess compliance of certain security criteria by foreign governments. This resulted in certain enhancements on how information is shared between Nigeria and the U.S.
The Bridge News
