The Peoples Democratic Party and the Presidency on Saturday engaged in a blame game over the embargo placed on visa for Nigerian migrants by the United States of America.
President Donald Trump had on Friday included Nigeria in a list of six nations whose citizens would be denied visas that could ultimately lead to their being granted permanent stay in the US.
The other countries are Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania.
Reacting to the development, the PDP said Nigerians should hold the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress responsible for the negative impacts of the proposed travel sanctions imposed on our country by the United States.
The PDP described the sanction as yet another huge misfortune brought by the Buhari Presidency and the APC, “which have continued to wreck our nation with its compromised handling of security issues, in addition to escalated bloodletting and human rights violation under their watch”.
The party lamented that the travel ban “will have grave consequences on economic, educational and healthcare opportunities, hurt family and social ties as well as further put pressure on our overall national economy”.
The statement, signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, added: “More depressing is that the APC and the Buhari Presidency have been reversing diplomatic gains achieved by previous administrations while gradually pitching our nation against other countries of the world with its poor record on security, corruption and human right issues.
“Our party is worried that our nation that, have become a global destination and investment hub under the PDP, is now being pushed back to a pariah status under the incompetent and divisive APC, as reports from other members of the international community, including credible international organizations, have continued to raise concerns on security and human right issues under the Buhari administration.
“Only recently, our nation was rated as third country with the highest level of terrorism in 2019 after Iran and Afghanistan, in the Global Terrorism Index rating by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
“This is in addition to damning reports by reputable organizations including Amnesty International (AI), Transparency International (TI), European Union (EU), United States Department of State among others, which in various independent reports, raised grave issues of escalated corruption, violation of human rights, disregard to rule of law, abuse of processes, election rigging and poor handling of security issues under the APC
“The APC administration has failed to rejig its security high command despite the calls by Nigerians, in the face of worsening security challenges and mass killings in our country under their charge.
“It is also worrisome that the APC-led administration had failed to take a decisive step to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators of acts of terrorism including the mass killings in Benue, Nasarawa, Bauchi, Taraba, Kogi, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Kaduna, Ekiti, Kogi and other parts of the country under the current administration.
“The PDP restates that such failures by the APC had continued to bolster insurgents, bandits and kidnappers to continue to launch deadly attacks on Nigerians.
“Moreover, the APC have failed to account for hoodlums and political mercenaries it imported from neighbouring countries to assist in unleashing violence on Nigerians during the heavily rigged 2019 general elections.
“The PDP therefore urge the National Assembly not to relent in its efforts to take decisive action on security, as the travel ban is a wake-up call on our leaders and all critical stakeholders to address the issues at stake.
“The party however called on the United States to ensure that the ban does not hurt innocent Nigerians who are also bearing the brunt of the poor handling of security in our country under the APC administration.”
Reacting to the development, the Buhari Media Organisation said the country was paying for the since of past administrations headed by the PDP.
It carpeted former Vice President and presidential candidate of the PDP in the last election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who also reacted to the development, for not knowing the difference between a visa ban and a visa restriction.
The BMO said Nigerians are only restricted from immigration visa, with other visa categories still available to those who qualify for them.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju, and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, the group said rather than gleefully celebrate the visa restrictions, Abubakar should be remorseful that his party is responsible for this inconvenience caused Nigerians.
It said: “The United States (US) visa restriction, engendered by the US Department of Homeland Security, is symbolic; to show security concern over two issues. One is the printing of the Nigerian passport, and the other is the storage of data and other vital information on the holders of the Passport.
“Now, these are crucial matters in a world where information sharing is of the utmost essence in the face of security challenges everywhere. The Nigerian passport was being printed by a company in Malaysia before the PDP gave it out to an Irish company.”
The BMO said the PDP government then in power signed a double-faced contract, which was renewed just two weeks before handing over in 2015.
It said: “In one breath, the contract was to last for four years, but in another breath, it was agreed that the said contract would not lapse until the company has printed 10million copies of the travel document.
“As we speak, only 3 million copies of the Nigerian passport has been printed by this company. This and the huge volume of vital information being held by this Irish company has created a huge security nightmare for concerned security agencies.”
According to the BMO, the International Criminal Police Organisation more commonly known as INTERPOL, had actually reported that Nigeria was not sharing information, adding: “So Nigerians can see what problems the PDP has brought upon the country.
“In an effort to redress the situation, President Buhari gave a directive to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to domicile the printing of the nation’s passport at the Security Printing and Minting Corporation.
“Unfortunately, this directive could not be executed because of legal issues raised by the Irish company contracted by the PDP government.
“No doubt the embarrassing inclusion of Nigeria in the travel restriction by the US is one of the prices we have to pay for the crimes of past PDP governments and their proclivity to shoddy handling of sensitive matters of state while they wallow in money laundering and other financial crimes.”
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