President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a committee to address the suspension of the issuance of ‘immigrant visas’ to Nigerians by the United States’ Government.
A statement on Saturday by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said the committee will be headed by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.
The US government announced the expanded list of countries hit with travel ban on Friday which includes Nigeria, Sudan, Eritrea, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar over non-compliance to its new visa policy.
The Presidency, however, said in the statement that the restriction did not affect other categories of visas like official, tourism or business visas.
“For Nigeria, the restriction is the suspension of the issuance of ‘immigrant visas’ to Nigerian passport holders only,” the statement said.
“This suspension shall come into effect on February 21, 2020. The suspension does not apply to other U.S visas such as those for official, business, tourism and student travel.
“The DHS (Department of Homeland Security) states the suspension of ‘immigrant visas’ became necessary following a review and update of the methodology (performance metrics) adopted by the US Government to assess compliance of certain security criteria by foreign governments.
“This resulted in certain enhancements on how information is shared between Nigeria and the US.
“Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and its international allies especially on matters of global security. Accordingly, President Muhammadu Buhari has established a committee, to be chaired by the Honourable Minister of Interior, to study and address the updated U.S. requirements.”
