Former Member of the House of Representatives Aliyu Gebi reacting to the US placing of Nigeria as country of particular concern has revealed that a serving Chief of Defence Staff was once officially denied a visa to travel to the United States.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV, Gebi recounted the incident while discussing Nigeria’s foreign policy and security challenges. “There was a time a serving CDS was denied a visa officially to go to the United States. Nigeria maintains a principle of non-alignment. We have friends everywhere. Nigeria is surrounded by Francophone countries. What do they expect us to do?” he said.
Gebi highlighted difficulties Nigeria faced in procuring weapons during the Boko Haram insurgency due to the same ban. “When we started fighting Boko Haram, weapons were not sold to us. In fact, our hands and legs were bound and tied. We had to become so ingenious to find a way to battle out of this quagmire that we found ourselves in, and this is also part of, again, a global problem. It’s not just an isolated problem that is Nigeria-centric. It is something that will transcend the entire globe, as we have seen. So it is not in the interest of Donald Trump’s White House to say they are the monitor in the classroom or the moral police,” he stated.
The former lawmaker emphasized Nigeria’s sovereign right to pursue diplomatic relationships independently of American approval.
He argued that the U.S. president does not govern Nigeria and that the country retains the freedom to establish strategic partnerships with other nations.
According to Gebi, if diplomatic relations with the United States prove unsatisfactory, Nigeria has the option to cultivate friendships elsewhere, underscoring the nation’s commitment to maintaining diverse international alliances rather than depending solely on Western partnerships.
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