US envoy moves to fast track issuing visas to Nigerians

The United States of America  Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terence McCulley, has disclosed that part of the problems responsible for delay in issuing visas to Nigerians were old facilities built many years ago.

McCulley said plans had been concluded for a new consulate in Lagos by the U.S. Government to provide better services, adding that it would be ready within the next five years.

The ambassador, who made the remark while speaking during a video conference with journalists in Abuja, stressed that the facilities were envisaged to handle the increasing number of visa applicants in Nigeria.

He said:  “We are facing challenges in terms of our physical layout both in Lagos and Abuja. But we are looking at buildings which were constructed many years ago when the demand for US visas was far reduced.

“We have seen more increase in demand for US visas and that has frankly strained our facility and we struggle with that on a daily basis. We hope in the next five years to build a new consulate in Lagos which will resolve some of these physical challenges.”

He said that the US was committed to supporting Nigeria to end the Boko Haram challenges in the country.

“We are committed to partnership with Nigeria and we have programmes with the Nigerian Police in various capacity. I don’t know if there has been some success in recent weeks over tragically the lives of the Italian and British hostages that were lost. There were significant successes in capturing and detaining members of the extreme faction of Boko Haram.

“So I think that there would continue to be challenges and Nigeria can count on partners like the United States to help build capacities to address these challenges.

“The demand for US visas in Nigeria has increased substantially in the last twenty four months. We value the interest of Nigerians going on holiday, going on business, going to universities in the United States.

“We recognized that not all applicants are going to be qualified, but I will tell you that more than fifty percent of applicants requiring visas to the United States do receive them. But what I tell our consular officers in Abuja and Lagos is that they are the windows of America and that we want all applicants to be treated with respect.

“Thousands of Nigerians go to United States each year and around seven thousands Nigerians studying in the United States and more Nigerians are studying in the United States than any other countries from Sub-Saharan Africa.”

He said that the US was committed to supporting Nigeria to end the Boko Haram challenges in the country.

“We are committed to partnership with Nigeria and we have programmes with the Nigerian Police in various capacity. I don’t know if there has been some success in recent weeks over tragically the lives of the Italian and British hostages that were lost. There were significant successes in capturing and detaining members of the extreme faction of Boko Haram.

“So I think that there would continue to be challenges and Nigeria can count on partners like the United States to help build capacities to address these challenges.

On the fight against corruption in Nigeria, he said: “We have a variety of programmes to build capacity of the EFCC. We saluted the nomination of Chairman Ibrahim Lamorde. For a year and half, we tried to raise nomination because we recognized that the EFCC had not been able to fulfill its mandate.

“We have a variety of training programmes in place to build the capacity of EFCC workers. Chairman Lamorde is going to Washington in a week’s time to have similar discussion with law enforcement and other agencies. At every opportunity, we talk about the need to address the problem of corruption.

“It is a dialogue we carry out at the highest level of this government and we recognize there is a problem. But I think we are deploying resources to assist the government of Nigeria to address this problem and it is part of our public diplomacy message.”