The House of Representatives,Tuesday resolved to interface with every relevant government agencies and diplomatic missions to end the controversial immigration restrictions imposed on Nigeria by the United States of America.
Saga Gist learnt that the movement was to forestall a similar sad occurrence in future.
The lower chamber also urged the Executive to accelerate other necessary actions meant to review or cancel the restriction.
These resolutions followed an adopted motion entitled “Need to unravel circumstances that led to immigration restriction by the United States of America, seek quick resolution and prevent future occurrence” sponsored by Hon.Yusuf Tajudeen from Kogi state.
In his lead debate, Yusuf noted that the United States of America on January 31, 2020, as a direct consequence of non-compliance with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by performance metrics, placed immigration restriction on Nigeria, alongside Tanzania, Sudan, Eritrea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan;
He also affirmed that the restriction was a fallout of alleged non-adequate data sharing policy on public safety and terrorism-related information necessary for protection expected to take effect on February 21, 2020.
The lawmaker expressed concern that due to the tardiness of some government agencies and officials, Nigeria was unable to meet the deadline for performance metrics that led to the unfortunate restriction order against Nigeria.
He added, “While Nigeria was not able to meet the criteria, some developing nations like Chad and Belarus did the needful.
“The immigration restrictions order on Nigeria aside having far reaching multiplier effects on the polity, economy and governance, attracts serious global embarrassment to our dear country”.
“The immigration restrictions will impact negatively and have grievous repercussions on wel-meaning Nigerians who have legitimate personal, vocational, career, business and academic transactions in the USA”.
“If the restriction order is not reversed, it may lead to more strident diplomatic measures not only by the USA but some other developed nations, which may have serious consequences on government’s initiatives geared towards national growth and development”.
However, in his contribution, Hon. Sergius Ogun (Edo, PDP) suggested that the agency responsible for the ban be punished.
He added, “We are talking about medical tourism. If we fix this country, there won’t be need for such again”.
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