US-Africa: Trump’s Travel Ban Could Extend to Nigeria

The Trump administration is poised to add several African countries, including Nigeria, to a US travel ban list.

 

According to local media, the White House is considering Tanzania, Eritrea, Sudan and Nigeria for the new travel restrictions, to coincide with the three-year anniversary of Trump’s original executive order, which targeted majority Muslim nations.

 

Under the current travel ban, citizens of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, plus some Venezuelan officials and their relatives are blocked from US visa programs.

 

As a US anti-terrorism partner, and with a large number of citizens living and working in the USA, Nigeria’s inclusion on the list would sour US-Nigeria relations, according to observers.

 

Nigeria had no warning from Washington that it could be added to the list, information minister Lai Mohammed said on Monday. Such a move would be “hasty” and send the wrong signal to investors, Lai Mohammed said.

 

“Nigeria has done very well in the area of fighting terrorism,” Mohammed told Reuters, adding that Washington helps drive militant groups, such as the Islamic State, out of Nigeria.

 

A senior official within the Trump administration stated that countries failing to comply with US security requirements, including the submission of biometrics and the sharing of information and counter-terrorism measures, would be subject to US visa and immigration restrictions.

 

Some nations could be blocked from the diversity visa lottery program, a scheme, which issues green cards to citizens of countries with low US immigration levels. Trump wants to scrap the diversity visa program, claiming that it allows too many “undesirable people” into the US.

 

Nigeria is Washington’s second largest African trading partner and the US is the largest foreign investor in Nigeria, according to USTR and State Department briefs.