FG reacts as Trump mounts pressure on Nigeria to accept Venezuelan deportees from US

President Donald Trump’s administration is pressing Nigeria and other African nations to shelter Venezuelan convicts and illegal immigrants deported from the U.S.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, made the revelation during an interview on Channels TV on Thursday, July 10, 2025.

On Sunday, July 6, 2025, Trump announced that Nigeria will face an extra 10% tariff for joining BRICS, a group of emerging economies that he claims follow “anti-American policies.”

BRICS is an international group that originally included Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The organisation has since expanded to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran.

The group describes itself as “a political and diplomatic coordination forum for countries from the Global South and for coordination in the most diverse areas.”

Nigeria officially became the ninth partner country of BRICS on 17th January 2025, when Brazil announced the country’s formal admission.

Nigeria joins Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan as partner countries. This partner-country status was created during the 16th BRICS Summit held in Kazan in October 2024.

Two days later, the US embassy announced a reduction in the validity period and entry allowance for “most” non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to Nigerians, effectively limiting the legality of their stay in the US to three months with a single entry.

An alleged imbalance in visa reciprocity from Nigeria was cited on social media as the reason for the hard-hitting penalty, although the exact details were not made public by the US.

The developments sparked fresh debates on Nigeria’s economic policies and the direction of its future under Tinubu’s administration.

However, Tuggar said the tariff hike threat might not be connected to Nigeria’s participation in the BRICS Summit.

The foreign affairs also dismiss speculations that the U.S. revised its non-immigrant visa policy for Nigerians as retribution for the country’s participation in the 2025 BRICS, given Washington’s strained relations with member-states Russia and China.

He then revealed that Nigeria is seriously pushing back against America’s efforts to deport ex-convicts and other illegal Venezuelans, stating that the country had enough problems of its own.

“The issue of tariffs may not necessarily have to do with us participating in the BRICS meeting,” the Minister stated.

“You have to also bear in mind that the US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons.

“It would be difficult for countries like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own; we cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria. We already have 230 million people.”

Since taking office in January, Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders aimed at deporting millions of “illegal immigrants” — many of whom are asylum seekers — back to their countries of origin.

The US also pressured third countries to accept deported individuals who were not their nationals, a move widely condemned by human rights groups.

Some of the considered Central American countries were El Salvador and Panama, while in Africa, Libya, South Sudan, Rwanda, and Djibouti were identified as preferred destinations.

A few of these countries have already received some deportees