Federal Government of Nigeria has fired back at the Unite State government for declaring over 20 states in the country unsafe for its citizens to visit.
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, spoke while receiving a delegation from the Association of Tourism Practitioners of Nigeria in Abuja, stressing that every state in the country was safe for tourists.
Recall that the American government had warned its citizens resident in the country to avoid traveling to states such as Ekiti, Borno, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, and Zamfara.
The US cited armed robbery, kidnapping and terrorism, among others, as reasons for the advice.
But, Mohammed, who dismissed the US government’s claim, said the advisory published by the U.S. Embassy was untrue and should be discarded and urged the media to stop reporting negative things about Nigeria to the outside word.
“We are in Nigeria. How can we believe the claim that 20 states in Nigeria are not safe.That is not correct. There is no state in Nigeria that is not safe today.
“Is there any week they are not killing people in the U.S., by either shooting in schools or driveways or people committing suicide or mass bombing? How many of these stories do their media celebrate?
“If they want to tell their people not to come to Nigeria, it is not for us to help propagate and also make accessible to them,” he said.
