Hottestgistnaija.com
Robert and Pauline had already been apart for a year long after their
marriage, Pauline is in Nigeria, her husband went immediately after
their wedding ceremony to the USA; before the ban, she has been trying
the US visa lottery in order to start a new life with her husband in
California.
Pauline’s hope got shattered after the news of President Trump’s travel
ban broke on various media platforms. she called her husband to inform
him about the news; the duo broke in tears following Trump’s
administration expansion of its controversial travel ban saying it
would add immigration restrictions on citizens from Nigeria, Myanmar,
Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan who want to live or work in the U.S. permanently.
It also bars citizens from Sudan and Tanzania from the U.S. diversity
visa program, also known as the “green-card lottery,” which aims to
diversify the immigrant population in the United States by selecting
applicants from countries with lower rates of immigration.
All these happened before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic which forced
countries including USA, Nigeria to be on lockdown remedy.
Trump’s government cited security as the reason for expanding the travel
ban to those countries, saying they had deficiencies in sharing
terrorist, criminal or identity information.
However, it is justified by the administration, barring Nigerians from
traveling to the U.S. will be counterproductive. Nigeria may be
associated in many Americans’ minds with terrorism, kidnapping young
girls and internet scammers posing as temporarily inconvenienced
princes, yet the Nigerians living in the U.S. is actually much more
educated than the American population as a whole.
A 2015 study found that of the estimated 376,000 Nigerian immigrants in
the U.S., 29 per cent had an advanced degrees, compared with 11 per cent
of the general populations.
Then, there is the demographic, economic and political weight of Nigeria
itself. With nearly 200 million people and a GDP of almost $400 billion,
the highest in Africa on both measures—Nigeria’s global importance is
undeniable.
Its population, which is set to double by 2050, may well overtake that
of the U.S. sometime this century. Nigeria would seem to be an
indispensable partner and even peer of America.
The most likely effect of the travel ban for Nigerians will be to impose
a huge set of burdens on families. The ban will also have an economic
impact, potentially disrupting the more than $6 billion in remittances
that flow from the U.S. to Nigeria each year and obstructing numerous
other forms of commerce and economic exchange.
To make matters worse for Nigerians, the ban, which covers immigrant
visas, comes on top of existing, de facto restrictions on their travel
to the U.S.
Nigeria had one of the highest denial rates of any country for
short-term, non-immigrant U.S. visas in 2018, and last year the Trump
administration raised fees for Nigerians’ visa applications.
Why, then, has the Nigerian government reacted with conciliation rather
than condemnation? One reason is that President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration is keen on preserving cooperation with the U.S. on other
front.
The Nigeria Diaspora team on the 25th of February 2020, visited the U.S.
State of Delaware to campaign against the recent immigrant visa
restriction on Nigeria and seek development cooperation.
The delegation, led by the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora
Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa as well as the Chairperson,
House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Mrs Tolulope
Akande-Sadipe.
At separate meetings with top officials of the Delaware state
government, the Nigerian delegation denounced the immigrant visa
restriction on Nigeria by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Dabiri-Erewa said Nigeria ought not to be on the list, citing the
enormous contributions of its nationals to the development of the U.S.
economy, a fact acknowledged by her host.
In a more practical sense, Nigeria’s muted response to the travel ban
listing may simply reflect the government’s lack of bandwidth.
Throughout his presidency, Buhari has confronted a range of sometimes
distinct and sometimes interlocking challenges.
The challenges include not only longstanding problems like poverty and
insecurity, but now the threat of the Wuhan Coronavirus tagged Covid-19
spreading to Nigeria with about 100 confirmed cases with only one death
thus far.
Policymakers in Abuja likely feel that this is the wrong time to be
dragged into a war of words with Washington.
The travel ban will prevent thousands of people from moving to the
United States, and will likely have the most impact on Nigeria, the most
populous nation in Africa.
In 2018, the United States approved nearly 14,000 green cards for
citizens of Nigeria, compared to 8,182 for Burma, 2,428 for Eritrea, 908
for Kyrgyzstan, 3,658 for Sudan, and 3,186 for Tanzania, according to
data from U.S.
Twitter users, particularly Nigerians, expressed their disdain for the
move. @ceejayesq tweeted: “anyone who didn’t realise from the beginning
that the ban was mostly about race, rather than security, has got to win
an award for naiveté.”
@iamcrisshekinah was determined not to be discouraged, tweeting: “I am
proudly Nigerian. Wow. We are the most educated immigrants in the
#UnitedStates. God bless the Federal Republic of #Nigeria. We are so
talented and hardworking and the world is scared of us even
@realDonaldTrump himself.”
wants a different kind of immigrant; highly skilled workers who speak
English and have good job offer; and Nigerians deserves more because we
have the educational skills.
This ban has led some to question the administration’s justifications
for the ban while pointing out the diplomatic and economic fallout that
could ensue. Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed,
responded to the proposed updates and the inclusion of Nigeria; stating
“Nigeria has committed a lot of resources to fight terrorism. Any travel
ban cannot but be inimical to the growth of the country.”
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the grounds for the ban to be
legitimate,
civil rights groups continue to challenge the ban and more arguments
will likely emerge as the ban is expected to take effect.
Whatever the outcome, should the new travel ban take effect, the data
show substantial social and economic costs are likely. Shutting the door
to similar immigrants from these countries, especially Nigeria, would
effectively shortchange the Nigeria’s economy in the future and disrupt
hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods today. END.
