Nigeria has firmly rejected pressure from the Donald Trump administration to accept deported Venezuelan prisoners from the United States, Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar has revealed.
Tuggar stressed that Nigeria faces enough domestic challenges and would not serve as a dumping ground for Venezuelan convicts deported under President Trump’s renewed crackdown on undocumented migrants.
“We have our own problems. We can’t take Venezuelan deportees into Nigeria. With a population of over 230 million, we already have enough to contend with,” Tuggar asserted.
The minister’s comments came as President Bola Tinubu joined other world leaders at the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which took place from July 6 to 7, 2025. On the final day of the summit, US President Donald Trump announced a new round of 10 percent tariffs on “anti-American” BRICS nations, targeting China, India, Nigeria, and others.
However, Tuggar clarified that Nigeria’s participation in the BRICS summit may not be directly linked to the tariff hike.
“The issue of tariffs may not necessarily have to do with us being at the BRICS meeting,” he said.
Tuggar also disclosed that the Nigerian government had initiated diplomatic discussions with the United States over fresh visa restrictions recently imposed on Nigerian citizens. He described as regrettable a similar move by the United Arab Emirates, which tightened entry rules for Nigerian travelers earlier in the year.
Nigeria officially joined BRICS+ as a partner country in January 2025, aligning with other major emerging economies. Originally formed in 2006, BRICS — representing Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — has expanded to include new members such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the UAE.
Today, BRICS+ nations collectively account for about 37 percent of global GDP and nearly half of the world’s population, posing an increasingly influential bloc against the traditional dominance of Western powers.
