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| Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo |
On a previously scheduled visit to Washington, Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said he sought more information on President Donald Trump's latest immigration crackdown announced last week which targeted Nigeria and five other countries.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, meeting Onyeama, said that Trump took action partly due to the "terrorism threat" in West Africa, where Nigeria has fought alongside the United States against Islamist extremists.
Nigeria remains a "strategic partner" but Trump restricted visas as it has "room to grow in sharing important national security information."
"I'm optimistic that's going to happen," Pompeo told reporters.
Striking a diplomatic tone, Onyeama said his talks were "very gratifying" but acknowledged, with a smile, that Trump's move caught Nigeria off-guard.
"We were somewhat blindsided by the announcement of the visa restrictions," Onyeama said.
He said that Nigeria had already been looking to address US concerns, such as providing information on suspected terrorists and embedding electronic data into passports.
"We know, and the US officials have also confirmed, that we have been able to tick most of those boxes," he said.
The lingering problem, he said, involved how to handle lost and stolen Nigerian passports.
He said Nigeria was putting in place a system that would make data from such passports "immediately available" to all members of Interpol, the global law enforcement body.
"We hope to have that up and running very soon," he said. "Hopefully, once that has been achieved, we look forward to being taken off this visa restriction list."
Trump came to office vowing to impose border restrictions and notoriously was quoted as using a vulgar epithet for African and other developing nations that send immigrants to the United States. Read more
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