The Federal Authorities has dismissed the potential of accepting 300 Venezuelan deportees from america, amid rising diplomatic tensions over visa restrictions and threats of tariff hikes.
Nigeria’s Overseas Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, made this identified in an interview with Channels Tv, the place he criticised the transfer as unfair and linked it to strain from the Trump administration.
“We have already got over 230 million folks.
“It will likely be unfair for Nigeria to just accept 300 Venezuelan deportees.
“You may be the identical one that will castigate us if we acquiesce to accepting Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria,” the minister mentioned.
Tuggar added that Nigeria has sufficient issues of its personal and can’t settle for Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria.
The minister’s remarks come amid experiences from The Wall Road Journal that the U.S. authorities can also be pressuring different African nations, together with Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Gabon, and Guinea-Bissau, to just accept deported migrants which incorporates people who’ve both accomplished jail sentences or whose nations are unwilling or sluggish to repatriate them.
In keeping with the BBC, throughout a gathering with 5 African leaders on Wednesday, President Trump mentioned he hoped to cut back visa overstay charges and advance secure third-country agreements, although Liberia’s overseas minister denied receiving any such communication from Washington.
“It’s important to additionally keep in mind that the US is mounting appreciable strain on African nations to just accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of jail,” he mentioned.
“It will likely be tough for a rustic like Nigeria to just accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. Now we have sufficient issues of our personal; we can’t settle for Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria, for crying out loud,” he acknowledged.
As an alternative, Tuggar mentioned Nigeria is concentrated on negotiating {economic} partnerships with the U.S., significantly in areas of mutual curiosity.
“We’re trying to do offers with the US,” he mentioned, highlighting Nigeria’s reserves of fuel, essential minerals, and uncommon earths important to American expertise corporations.
Tuggar additionally famous that diplomatic discussions with Washington are ongoing as each nations work by their variations.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Division of State introduced a worldwide reciprocity realignment coverage, below which practically all non-diplomatic and non-immigrant visas for Nigerians have been restricted to single-entry and a validity of solely three months.
Tuggar argued that the restrictions are usually not reciprocal and type a part of a broader strain tactic tied to geopolitical tensions.
The visa modifications comply with statements by U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to impose a further 10% tariff on nations that align with the insurance policies of the BRICS bloc, an alliance of growing economies seen as a problem to Western dominance.
Tuggar dismissed the concept the tariff menace was immediately associated to Nigeria’s BRICS involvement.
“The specter of tariff hikes didn’t essentially should do with us collaborating in BRICS,” he mentioned.
Though Nigeria just isn’t a full BRICS member, it grew to become a associate nation in January 2025, becoming a member of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
