Less than 48 hours after his inauguration, America President, Joe Biden, has signed some executive orders thereby lifting the immigrant visa ban placed on Nigeria by his predecessor, Donald Trump
According to a report by Bloomberg, Biden also reversed the systemic ban placed on citizens from Muslim dominated countries like Yemen.
Trump had last February placed an immigrant visa ban on Nigeria, citing Nigeria’s lack of a robust database. The American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary-Beth Leonard, stated at the time that Nigeria must improve on its data intelligence to ease the investigation of its citizens wishing to migrate to the US, if it wants the ban lifted.
The Nigerian government subsequently set up a committee on Citizen Data Management and Harmonisation, to address the complaints of the US which led to the recent push for all Nigerians to register with the National Identity Management Commission and obtain a National Identity Number.
With Biden’s reversal of Trump’s order, Nigerians will now be able to apply for green cards.
The Bloomberg report reads in part, “The ban that Biden ended, blocked entry to most people from Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and North Korea. It also restricted immigrant visas for people from Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, and Eritrea as well as for certain others from Venezuela and Tanzania.”
Senator Sam Anyanwu, popularly known as (SamDaddy), while applauding the move, expressed happiness on the political maturity exhibited by Democrats during and after the violence clash at Capitol, advising Nigerian politicians to emulate it.
Anyanwu, a onetime Chairman of Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions advised politicians in the country to play within the ambit of law, and regretted that selfishness, bitterness and rancor were allowed to dominate the democratic setting in the country. Senator Anyanwu therefore called on members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the entire Imo citizens to resist any pressure from self-centered politicians to cause damage in the state, while appealing to them to rally round the party.
He said, “The kind of politics played in America could only be seen in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)”, appealing to Imolites and Nigerians at large to “embrace PDP as a better alternative to correct leadership problems in the country.”