While the American government experiences a shutdown for about ten days running, the country’s embassy in Abuja has apologised to Nigerians seeking visa from its Embassy in Abuja and the Lagos Consulate.
The government had shutdown 22nd December over disagreement on the funding of the proposed wall to be erected between the United States and Mexico.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are proposing to reopen the Federal Government by severing funding for the Department of Homeland Security and border security from other spending bills that enjoy bipartisan support; an attempt aimed at forcing President Trump to negotiate or to shoulder the blame for a protracted shutdown.
The Democrats’ plan to reopen the government will come up for a vote on Thursday when they take control of the House.
However, the shutdown of the
US government which necessitated the indefinite suspension of the country’s embassy in Nigeria, causing loss of application fees of thousands of applicants who may have their scheduled interviews rescheduled or canceled.
The partial government shutdown over President Trump’s inability to get the Democrats in the legislature to fund the erection of a $5 billion US-Mexico border wall, a campaign promise he made began on 22nd December 2018.
The American Embassy in Nigeria on Monday has however apologised for the inconveniences the development in Washington has caused thousands of Nigerian applicants.
“Due to the current U.S. government shutdown, the American Centers located in the Embassy, Abuja and Consulate General, Lagos are unfortunately closed. They will re-open once the U.S. government shutdown is resolved,” the Embassy assured Nigerians in a statement issued on Monday 31st December 2018.
Apologising further, the statement reads, “Sorry for any inconvenience to our valued patrons.”
Hope may be rekindled on Thursday when Democrats take over the House with a proposal to reopen the government.
