Nigeria won’t yield to pressure from the Donald Trump administration to accept Venezuelan deportees from the United States, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar.
Speaking on Channels Television’s programme “Politics Today” on Thursday, Tuggar stated that Nigeria faces numerous internal challenges and will not serve as a dumping ground for Venezuelan inmates deported from the US amid Trump’s immigration crackdown.
President Bola Tinubu recently participated in the BRICS Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 6 to 7, 2025.
At the close of the summit, which gathered the 11-member economic and political bloc with growing Chinese influence, US President Donald Trump announced a plan to impose an additional “10 percent trade tariff” on BRICS nations, including China, India, and Nigeria.
Tuggar noted that the tariff threat might not necessarily be tied to Nigeria’s attendance at the BRICS meeting.
He said, “The issue of tariffs may not necessarily have to do with us participating in the BRICS meeting.
“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.”
The minister added that the Tinubu-led government had begun discussions with the US regarding the newly imposed visa restrictions on Nigerian nationals. He also described the recent visa limitations on Nigerians by the United Arab Emirates as unfortunate.
Nigeria accepted an invitation to become a partner country in BRICS+ in January 2025.
BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, was established in 2006 to unite the world’s largest developing economies in a challenge to the political and economic dominance of Western countries.
BRICS+, the expanded group, now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
The bloc represents roughly 37% of global GDP and nearly half of the world’s population, contributing about 40 percent of total global economic output.
