Six months after Donald Trump took office, Nigerian-American relations are at a low point, with the US administration having passed a number of policies that have negatively affected Nigeria.
These include cutting USAID funding to public health programmes in the country; threatening Nigeria and other BRICS+ members and partners with an additional 10% tariff for having “anti-American policies”; and reducing visa validity for applicants from Nigeria and three other African countries. While Nigerian applicants could receive up to five-year, multiple-entry visas to the US as recently as May 2025, they will now be granted only single-entry visas valid for three months.
But the biggest draw of bad blood appears to be Nigeria’s refusal to accept Venezuelan deportees or third-country prisoners from the US. This demand is part of a new trend in American immigration policy, in which it seeks to deport people not to their country of origin – which are often accused of refusing or being slow to accept them – but further abroad. The US has reportedly made similar overtures to Benin, Eswatini, Libya and Rwanda.
