Is the Nigerian Passport Ranked as the 5th Most Powerful in the World?

Claims that the Nigerian passport has been ranked 5^th most powerful after CNN’s Fareed Zakaria did an analysis on the Trump administration travel ban have been circulating online.

Some of the posts on social media and various websites are shared here, here, here and here.

BREAKING: Nigerian Passport Becomes World's Fifth Most Powerful After CNN's Fareed Zakaria Analysishttps://t.co/zd8cvujdLH#CHEMUN #UltmateLoveNg #mondaythoughts #MondayMotivaton #Passport #Nigeria pic.twitter.com/GAkrFexG1f

— FluffTimes (@FluffTimesNg) February 17, 2020

I can see many Nigerians sharing @FareedZakaria analysis on @CNN talking about Nigerian passport being world’s 5th most powerful. Leadership is everything. Everything either goes up or goes down depending on the vision, mission and courage of whoever leads every institution.

— Semiu Okanlawon (@sokanlawon) March 3, 2020

Background

On 31^st January 2020, the White House said immigrants from Nigeria and five other countries will no longer be eligible for visas allowing them to live in the US permanently. According to reports, reports reasons for imposing the restriction as cited in a presidential proclamation were Nigeria’s failure to comply with security and information-sharing requirements and its high terror risk to the US.

On February 16^th 2020, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria did an analysis on the controversial ban list by President Trump. He argued that Nigerians were not responsible for any terror-related deaths in America based on national security and education concerns cited in the travel ban.

It is from his arguments that the claims emanated.

Verification

According to the Henley Passport Index, the Nigerian passport is ranked 95^th in 2020.

The Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. According to its website, the ranking is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information.

Verdict

Claims that the Nigerian passport has been ranked as the 5^th most powerful in the world are FALSE.