Headline

Deportation: Nigerians In America Now Hide, Avoid Quarrels, Says US-Based Prof

Published

10 months ago

February 7, 2025

A Professor of Social Ethics at Boston University, Nimi Wariboko, has said that the sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the United States has triggered palpable fear among Nigerians living in Donald Trump’s America.

The don spoke virtually from the US on the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

“Here, of course, there are a good number of Nigerians that don’t have papers. So, there are worrying,” Wariboko said while describing the mood of the Nigerian community in the US barely three weeks after Trump resumed at the Oval Office.

“If you are a pastor, if you are a leader in those communities, you are worried for those people; you have concerns for them. Are they going to be deported?

“Some of them are hiding – there is that palpable fear that they could be raided. If you quarrel with your neighbours, they can call the immigration enforcement unit. There is that palpable fear. They are fearful, they are angry, they don’t know what is going to happen.”

Trump, who took over power for the second term on January 20, 2025, vowed mass deportation of “criminal aliens” who illegally gained entry into the United States. Already, mass raids have been carried out at homes, schools, workplaces, and shopping centres where undocumented immigrants were picked up and deported to places like India, and Guatemala, among others.

Mixed reactions have trailed Trump’s immigration move with some commending his action while others begrudge it.

Wariboko said undocumented Nigerian immigrants in America are angry with their countrymen on Nigerian soil for not being compassionate.

“They (undocumented Nigerian immigrants) are saying at the end of the day, if this great replacement holds, they are going to be sent back home. Do you have jobs to absorb them?”

He said “even those with legal papers and have acquired US citizenship could still be in jeopardy” with the proposed reversal of the birth citizenship laws.

The professor argued that the Nigerian government should be interested in defending its citizens in the United States because any immigration policies that lead to deportation would affect the Nigerian economy as Nigerians overseas contribute a significant amount to the local economy.

According to the World Bank, remittance from Nigerians living abroad reached $20bn in 2023.

He said, “They are saying even if you don’t like us, people in the US send billions of dollars home every year to sustain the Nigerian economy, to sustain their families. Even for the sake of economic interest, Nigeria should care about that because there is money that comes from here to sustain different families.

“For many families, if they didn’t have people abroad; in Europe, in Asia, in the United States or Canada, their economic well-being will be below what they have in the country. So, if people know that policies are about defending your economic interest, then they will be defending their fellow citizens because it is in the national interest of Nigeria.

“If anybody in the world is coming up with policies that will affect the Nigerian economy, the government should defend Nigerians in that regard.”

Trump’s latest move is a reminder of his immigration policy during his first term as POTUS. In 2020, the Trump administration added Nigeria to a list of countries whose citizens will in some way be restricted from entering the United States because Nigeria didn’t comply with identity management and information sharing criteria.

Approximately 376,000 Nigerian immigrants live in the United States as of 2015, according to official sources. Nigeria is the largest source of African immigration to the United States.

The United States is one of the top destinations for migrating Nigerian youths and the middle class in search of greener pastures. Nigerians in America form a bulk of the total diaspora bulge which contributes more than $20bn annually to Nigeria’s economy, according to the 2023 data from the World Bank.

Headline

12 Die, 30 Missing In Peru Landslide

Published

17 hours ago

December 1, 2025

Editor

At least 12 people, including three children, died in a landslide at a river port in central Peru on Monday, and 30 were reported missing, officials said.

The landslide submerged a boat with about 50 passengers on board, and another with none, as they were docked at the port of Iparia in the Amazon jungle region of Ucayali, according to a police report cited by the Andina news agency.

Six people were injured, it added, and a search and rescue operation was underway at the start of the Peruvian rainy season.

Without giving a toll, Peru’s COEN national emergency operations centre said on X that tragedy struck at dawn due to “erosion” of the bank of the Ucayali river.

It said the navy has been called in to help.

AFP

Headline

Nigeria Grants Asylum To Guinea-Bissau Opposition Candidate

Published

18 hours ago

December 1, 2025

Editor

The Nigerian embassy in Guinea-Bissau has granted asylum to Fernando Dias da Costa, the country’s opposition presidential candidate, following alleged threats to his life after last week’s military coup, The Cable Reports.

The coup was announced by military officers on Wednesday, just days after Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election in which both incumbent President Umaro Embaló and his main challenger, da Costa, claimed victory before official results were released.

Nigeria condemned the takeover and urged an immediate return to constitutional order.

In a letter to the President of the Economic Community of West African States Commission, Omar Touray, dated November 30, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said President Bola Tinubu had approved asylum and protection for da Costa inside the Nigerian embassy in Bissau.

Tuggar wrote that the decision was made “in response to threats made against da Costa’s life.”

“In this regard, it would be appreciated if you would kindly mandate the ECOWAS Stabilisation Support Mission in Guinea-Bissau to provide him protection and security while in the premises of the Nigerian embassy,” the letter stated.

The foreign affairs minister’s Special Assistant on Media and Communications Strategy, Alkasim Abdulkadir, confirmed the letter’s authenticity to The Cable on Monday.

He said, “The decision of the Federal Government of Nigeria to grant asylum and provide protection to Fernando Dia Da Costa falls squarely within Nigeria’s sovereign responsibility and longstanding commitment to regional peace, stability, and democratic governance.”

He added that Nigeria acted “in the broader interest of de-escalation,” saying the government had exercised its discretion “to prevent further deterioration of tensions and to promote social cohesion in Guinea-Bissau and the wider West African sub-region.”

According to Abdulkadir, the intervention aligns with ECOWAS principles and reflects Nigeria’s role as a stabilising force in West Africa.

Following the coup, ECOWAS held an emergency virtual summit of heads of state and subsequently suspended Guinea-Bissau from the regional bloc until constitutional order is restored.

Headline

Trump To Attend FIFA World Cup Finals Draw On Friday

Published

18 hours ago

December 1, 2025

Editor

The White House on Monday confirmed US President Donald Trump would attend the draw for the FIFA World Cup finals in Washington later this week.

The United States will co-host the 2026 tournament alongside Canada and Mexico.

“On Friday, President Trump will attend the FIFA World Cup final draw at the Kennedy Centre,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Trump has made the World Cup a centrepiece event of both his second presidency and the 250th anniversary of US independence next year.

But the giant sporting extravaganza has not escaped the political turmoil caused by Trump’s hardline stance on a host of issues.

Trump, a Republican, has raised the possibility of moving games from some US host cities amid a crackdown on what he says is crime and illegal migration in some Democratic-run areas.

AFP