Nigeria Rejects U.S. Pressure to Accept Venezuelan Deportees, Says Foreign Minister

 Nigeria Rejects U.S. Pressure to Accept Venezuelan Deportees, Says Foreign Minister

The United States is pressuring Nigeria and other African nations to accept deported Venezuelan convicts and illegal immigrants, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has revealed.

Speaking on Channels Television on Thursday, Mr Tuggar said Nigeria is firmly resisting Washington’s efforts to offload ex-convicts and undocumented Venezuelans, some of whom are being deported directly from American prisons.

“The U.S. is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the U.S., some straight out of prisons,” Mr Tuggar said. “It will be difficult for Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners. We already have enough problems of our own.”

The minister dismissed speculations that the U.S. government’s recent revision of its non-immigrant visa policy for Nigerians — from five-year multiple-entry visas to three-month single-entry visas — was retaliation for Nigeria’s participation in the 2025 BRICS summit. Instead, he hinted that the visa downgrade may be linked to Nigeria’s refusal to accept the Venezuelan deportees. Quoting a 1990 Public Enemy song, Mr Tuggar remarked, “Flavor Flav has problems of his own, I can’t do nothing for you, man,” adding pointedly, “We already have 230 million people. We cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria, for crying out loud.”