Donald Trump, president of the United States has added Nigeria to a list of countries restricted from traveling to the United States including five other countries Myanmar, Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania and Kyrgyzstan.
This means that immigrant visas issued mostly to foreigners intending to live in the United States will be banned from Nigeria.
According to US Homeland Security, these countries will be unable to obtain waivers. This proclamation will take effect from February 22.
This restriction could see more than 12,300 potential immigrants from resettling in the United States or reuniting with family according to a New York Times report.
Lai Mohammed has said that Nigeria was unaware of the plans by the United States and this proclamation could hamper fight against terrorism.
Nigeria is buying military hardware from the United States to aid the fight against Boko Haram.
Isaac Anyaogu
Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020.
Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors
He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports.
He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting.
Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States
