Nigeria has turned down a request from the United States to accept deported Venezuelans, including some who are coming straight from prison, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar.
During an interview on Politics Today on Channels Television, Tuggar noted that Washington is placing growing pressure on African countries to take in Venezuelan nationals being deported from the U.S. But he said Nigeria is not in a position to comply.
“You have to also bear in mind that the US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prison,” he said. “It will be difficult for a country like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own.”
He added, “We cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria, for crying out loud. We already have 230 million people. You will be the same people that would castigate us if we acquiesce to accepting Venezuelans from US prisons to be brought in.”
Tuggar also responded to concerns that the recent 10 per cent tariff imposed on Nigerian exports by the Trump administration might be linked to President Tinubu’s recent participation in the BRICS summit in Brazil.
“The issue of tariffs may not necessarily have to do with us participating in BRICS,” he stated.
President Donald Trump met with five West African leaders — from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal — at the White House last Wednesday, notably excluding Nigeria’s President Tinubu. Not long after, Trump announced new tariffs targeting Nigerian goods.
Also, the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria recently changed its visa rules, reducing American visa validity for Nigerians to a single-entry, three-month period. The embassy claimed this was a reciprocal move.
However, Tuggar said that explanation doesn’t align with the facts. “We are talking to the Americans. We are engaging them. We are also explaining and reminding them that we issue them five-year multiple entry visas, the same way that they issue regular travellers five-year multiple entry visas.”
He went further to explain that Nigeria had shifted from a visa-on-arrival system to an electronic visa process to reduce stress and save time for travellers.
“What Nigeria has done that differs is simple. We used to have a visa-on-arrival that wasn’t running efficiently. We introduced these online electronic visas that you can apply for so that it saves you time, instead of just arriving and then going through the process of getting the visa when you have already arrived,” he explained.
On the deportation matter, Tuggar warned that accepting the 300 Venezuelan deportees being proposed may only be the start of a larger issue.
“The issue of accepting Venezuelan deportees, honestly, I don’t think is something that Nigeria is in a position to work with. And I think it would be unfair to insist that Nigeria accepts 300 Venezuelan deportees. Maybe that might just even be the beginning,” he said.
Tuggar also made it clear that the new visa policy is not a matter of reciprocity. “Our visa is not saying that every American is only being given 90-day visas or three months or whatever. We give Americans, there are loads of Americans that have these long-term visas. It is not based on reciprocity,” he said.
