Our reporter/ President Donald Trump’s administration has commenced plans to place a general visa ban on Nigeria over corruption in President Bola Tinubu’s government and poor intelligence sharing between the two countries.
According to Washington Post report on Saturday, a State Department memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, listed 36 countries, including Nigeria, among those under scrutiny and consideration for visa restrictions to the U.S.
The Trump administration cited a lack of government transparency and a proper database to freely vet the backgrounds of travellers from these countries as the reason for the incoming ban, amid efforts by the government in Washington to reduce immigration to the United States.
Some countries had “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or they suffered from “widespread government fraud.” Others had large numbers of citizens who overstayed their visas in the United States, the newspapers said.
“The memo, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent Saturday to U.S. diplomats who work with the countries, said the governments of listed nations were being given 60 days to meet new benchmarks and requirements established by the State Department. It set a deadline of 8:00 a.m. Wednesday for them to provide an initial action plan for meeting the requirements,” The Post said.
The planned travel ban followed similar restrictions placed on nationals from 12 countries — Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen — by the United States earlier this month.
Like the previous proclamation, the majority of the countries under consideration for the next wave of travel restrictions, dubbed the “third-world list”, are African nations. Out of 36 countries on the list, 25 are from Africa, including Nigeria and America’s two closest military allies on the continent, Egypt and Djibouti.
Other countries facing possible travel restrictions include Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominica, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia.
Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are also included in the list.
Nigeria was placed under a similar ban during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. However, he removed the restriction on the West African country after then-President Muhammadu Buhari ordered improvements to the country’s immigration system to meet global standards.
The inclusion of Nigeria among countries considered for a visa ban comes under Tinubu, a politician with murky past ranging from alleged involvement in cocaine trafficking to an unresolved certificate scandal.
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