Why we placed travel restrictions on Nigerians —US

The United States of America Sunday explained reasons for imposing visa restrictions on Nigerians and nationals of five other countries.

The country said Nigeria never complied with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.

Nigeria  is  the only West African country sanctioned by the US Department of Home Security following a review and update of the methodology (performance metrics).

The others are Eritrea, Myanmar, Tanzania, Sudan and Kyrgyzstan.

The new visa regime announced by the US government January 31, involves the suspension of the issuance of immigrant visas to Nigerian passport holders. It comes into effect on February 21.

US justifies stance

Justifying its position, the U.S 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.

In a detailed explanation entitled: ‘Proclamation on improving enhanced vetting capabilities and process’ posted in www.whitehouse.gov, the U.S said:  “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.”

“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,” it further added.

FG sets up c’ttee

But the federal government set up a committee headed by Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola to look into the issue.

A statement by special adviser media to the president, Mr. Femi Adesina said: “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.).”

But the Presidency said the restrictions did not affect other categories of visas like official, tourism or business visas.

“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 presidency said.

Also raising similar condemnation, Chairman Senate Committee on Diaspora Affairs Ajibola Basiru  said the inclusion of Nigeria on the visa restrictions was wrong.

He pledged to make a diplomatic effort in conjunction with relevant agencies  to reverse the trend.

Describing it as “quite unfortunate,” the lawmaker 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 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?” he said.

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