Nigeria will not bow to pressure from the Donald Trump administration to accept Venezuelan deportees from the United States, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar. Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, Tuggar said Nigeria faces enough internal challenges and will not serve as a dumping ground for Venezuelan prisoners deported by the US as part of Trump’s clampdown on undocumented migrants. President Bola Tinubu had joined other world leaders at the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which took place from July 6 to 7, 2025. On the summit’s final day, the US President announced plans to impose an additional 10 percent trade tariff on “anti-American” BRICS countries, including China, India, and Nigeria. Tuggar, however, noted that the proposed tariff hike might not necessarily be linked to Nigeria’s attendance at the summit. Tuggar said, “The issue of tariffs may not necessarily have to do with us participating in the BRICS meeting. “You have to also bear in mind that the US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons. “It would be difficult for countries like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own; we cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria. We already have 230 million people.”