Former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nurudeen Mohammed has attributed the United States’ partial travel ban on Nigeria to prolonged diplomatic gaps and damaging domestic narratives that went unchallenged internationally.
Speaking on Prime Time, a program on Arise Television on Wednesday, Mohammed said Nigeria’s failure to appoint ambassadors for more than two years meant the country lacked credible voices to defend its interests abroad.
His comments followed a recent proclamation by US President Donald Trump, which expanded travel restrictions to include Nigeria and 15 other countries.
According to Mohammed, negative conversations within Nigeria, especially around insecurity and governance, were allowed to spread globally without official clarification or pushback.
“The conversation within Nigeria became very toxic, and nobody was speaking on our behalf,” he said. “All of these issues, left unchecked, eventually collided with the Trump presidency, which is not one to take things lightly.”
He described the period as a difficult one for Nigeria, noting that many observers had long anticipated the consequences of poor global engagement.
“For months, almost up to a year, Nigeria has had what I would call infamous visibility around the world,” Mohammed stated. “The country has been dragged from many directions, both domestically and internationally, and sometimes it is our own internal conversations that are weaponized against us.”
The former minister stressed that the absence of diplomatic representation at key global levels allowed what he described as “unsavory voices” to dominate the narrative about Nigeria.
“At the global level, the fact that Nigeria has been without proper representation for more than two years cannot be ignored. Our side of the story was never heard,” he added.
Mohammed also pointed to how sensitive security issues were handled and discussed publicly, arguing that such moments further harmed Nigeria’s international image.
