By Anifowoshe Oladipupo<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, has expressed concern over the reported inclusion of all ECOWAS member states in a proposed wave of United States visa restrictions, warning that such measures could severely hamper trade, diplomacy, and regional growth.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the opening of the 54th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council at the Ministerial Level in Abuja on Wednesday, Tuggar described the restrictions as \u201cnon-tariff barriers to deals,\u201d lamenting their potential to derail crucial partnerships between West Africa and the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be most unfortunate if it comes to pass, because we are a region of opportunities ready to do deals,\u201d Tuggar said. \u201cWe would like to do deals with the US, but visa restrictions are non-tariff barriers to deals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Highlighting the region\u2019s economic potential, the minister pointed to ECOWAS\u2019s abundant natural resources, including rare earth elements like Samarium, found in Monazite deposits in Bauchi State.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that the region has long been engaged in global trade and remains eager to expand its partnerships.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe in this part of the world are students of the art of the deal and have been part of the international trading system even before the modern state system,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Tuggar urged Washington to reconsider its policy direction, warning that West Africa would not lack willing partners if denied access to the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cECOWAS countries and the US have a rare opportunity to create a partnership based on principles of need. We are also a strategic alternative to more distant and politically divergent energy producers,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will do deals for our prosperity; the only question is with whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports indicate that US President Donald Trump is considering an expansion of the travel ban policy to include Nigeria and several other African nations.<\/p>\n
A memo from the US State Department cited concerns over countries\u2019 failure to meet new immigration and security benchmarks, including weak civil documentation systems and government fraud.<\/p>\n
The list of potentially affected countries includes Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
Affected countries have been given 60 days to comply with the new requirements or risk being added to the final list of restricted nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Anifowoshe Oladipupo Nigeria\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, has expressed concern over the reported inclusion of all ECOWAS member states in a proposed wave of United States visa restrictions, warning that such measures could severely hamper trade, diplomacy, and regional growth. Speaking at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":68395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[249],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68396,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68394\/revisions\/68396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}