Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, has said that Nigeria will no longer accept deportees from the United States, stating that the matter is no longer open for discussion in Nigeria-US relations.

Tuggar said this at a fireside chat during the Reuters Next Gulf Summit in Abu Dhabi.

“That ship has sailed. We made our point, and I believe it’s no longer on the discussion table. We don’t see the need to take nationals from other countries under duress” he said.

The minister revealed that Nigeria’s focus is on developing and training its own population and tackling both poverty and unemployment rather than accommodating deportees from foreign nations.

“We already have a population of over 200 million people, and we are moving towards 400 million in the next 25 years. Our goal is to train our workforce and ensure we have the right dependency ratio to sustain our future.” he said

Recently the United States has been activating its options of deporting migrants to some African states, including Nigeria.

Earlier this month, ten people were sent to Estwani by the US, in exchange for $5.1m (£3.79m) from the US to build its border and migration management capacity, local reports said.

In September a group of 14 deportees including Nigerians and one Gambian were sent to Ghana, and the government facilitated their return to their home countries.

Regarding the process, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama told reporters that his country accepted the deportees after reaching a reasonable agreement with the US.

“We were approached by the U.S. to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the U.S., and we agreed with them that West African nationals were acceptable because all our fellow West Africans don’t need a visa to come to our country,” he said.

However, Nigerian government, maintains that it is under no pressure to receive non-Nigerian deportees or to take in citizens deported from another country.

Tuggar said Nigeria is enjoying a healthy relationship with the US, and not accepting deportees is only a matter of understanding.

“We continue to enjoy good relations with the United States, but we cannot incorporate that into our policy. It is neither necessary nor sustainable,” he said.

Tuggar said Nigeria’s commitment is to create more jobs and equip its citizens with the skills needed to sustain long-term economic growth.

“We must focus on building our economy from within, Nigeria will not take in anyone under duress, from any country” he said.