Nigeria Won’t React To Speculations On US Travel Ban — Presidency

The Presidency has said Nigeria will need to get proper briefing before reacting to the reported travel ban plan against the country by the United States of America’s government.

Reports emerged on Tuesday indicating that the President Donald Trump’s administration has plans to add seven countries across the world, including Nigeria, to the country’s travel ban list.

The report, which was credited to some American media, identified the countries to be affected in the new ban to include Tanzania, Sudan, Eritrea and Nigeria from Africa; Kyrgyzstan and Belarus from Eastern Europe and Myanmar from Asia.

However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, in a terse message on Wednesday evening, said Nigeria will not react to such diplomatic development based on just media report.

According to him, the government would take its time to watch how the said development unfolds, take a study and analysis of its expected reach and effect before giving an official reaction.

Mallam Garba 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 U.S. 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,” he said.

The President of the United States Donald Trump during a recent media interview, had hinted of adding some countries to the restriction list of his country.

Trump, according to reports, did, however, not give clues to which countries might be affected in the new round of restriction.