The administration of United States President Donald Trump has commenced plans to place a general visa ban on Nigerians over corruption in President Bola Tinubu’s government and poor intelligence sharing between the two countries.
Newsonspot reports that citing a State Department memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, The Washington Post on Saturday 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.
