How Nigeria Will Benefit From Biden’s Presidency — Ex-NIIA DG

The former Director-General, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Professor Bola Akinterinwa has argued that a Biden rule of the United States will merit the Nigerian Immigration and finance sectors.

He said this during an interview with Media organization, The PUNCH, on Saturday evening, following the projection of Joe Biden as the 46th U.S President-Elect.

Donald Trump during his tenure had imposed a ban on Nigerians from receiving immigrant visas.

He also drove the agenda to put an end to citizenship by birth which allows all US-born foreigners to be given automatic citizenship.

Akinterinwa, however, stated that Biden would see to it that a better immigration policy was put in place for Nigerians.

The professor also added that since about nine (mostly democratic) Nigerians contested in this year’s US elections, that would widen the pathway to accessing Biden.

“Joe Biden is a democrat and the party usually has more sympathy for Africa generally. Meaning a Biden presidency has the likelihood to maintain a better relationship with Nigeria than it is under Trump.

“When we talk of immigrants in the US, Nigerians are acknowledged as the most educated of all them because they are either in engineering, medical field or working in NASA. Nine Nigerian Americans contested for election apart from one of them who contested as an independent candidate, majority of others if not all, contested on the platform of the Democratic Party.

“The implication is that Joe Biden has Nigerian political activists who are in the various houses in the state who can serve as either a lobby group which can be closer to Biden when it comes to the policy taken on Nigeria”, he said.

Akinterinwa further stated that a Biden presidency would restart the financing of multilateral organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) who in turn provides financial aid for African countries like Nigeria.