By Emeka Nze
The Nigerian government has reacted to the immigrant visa ban on the country as it sets up committee to address the issues which has led U.S. President Donald Trump to include Nigeria on the ban. This is coming just as Eritrea denounced a U.S. ban on immigrant visas for its citizens as “unacceptable”.
Nigeria had no prior information nor warning on the inclusion on the list before it appeared in the media.
Nigeria and Eritrea were among six countries, four of them in Africa, added to an expanded version of the U.S. visa ban announced on Friday in a presidential proclamation.
U.S. officials said the countries failed to meet U.S. security and information-sharing standards, which necessitated the new restrictions.
“Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and other international allies especially on matters of global security,” a Nigerian presidential statement said.
Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, is the biggest country on the list whose citizens will be suspended from U.S. visas that can lead to permanent residency. Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar were also slapped with a similar ban.
Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed said the government saw the ban as a political move that would hurt the country’s relations with the United States.
The U.S. government also said it will stop issuing “diversity visas” to nationals of Sudan and Tanzania.