Following reports that the President of the United States, Donald Trump intends to add Nigeria to a list of countries for visa restrictions, the Presidency has described the reported plan as mere speculations.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, stated this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, January 22, 2020.
The Wall Street Journal reports that countries will face bans only on some visa categories.
However, the presidential aide, who said he had heard the news dismissed it as speculation.
He said, “Yes, we have read the news that the Trump administration is planning to add a host of African, Asian and Eastern European countries to its travel restrictions list as reported by the US media.
”We are not going to react to speculations. We urge you to wait for us to see what unfolds under the new policy, its scope, its reach, the implications, and its consequences before we react.”
This is not the first time Trump would come up with a travel ban policy for countries especially those in the third world category.
On January 27, 2017, barely a week into his tenure, Trump signed the original travel ban order which initially denied visas to citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries. This list was later modified after a series of legal challenges.
The Supreme Court eventually allowed a third iteration of the order to go into effect. This iteration restricts entry of some citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, along with Venezuela and North Korea. Chad was removed from the original list.
