Wednesday 26 June 2013

Reasons Obama won’t visit Nigeria – US

Although Nigeria is the giant of Africa and expected to be considered for a visit by the US President Barack Obama, reasons have been stated by the
United States why this will not happen. President Obama will be embarking on a three-nation trip to Africa. According to US officials, the ongoing insecurity appeared to be responsible for the exclusion of Nigeria  in Obama’s second visit to the continent. Obama is
scheduled to visit Senegal Tanzania and South Africa. The US government said the
trip would focus on trade and investment,
democratic institution-building, young
people, and enhancing  economic growth.
American Deputy National Security
Advisor, Ben Rhodes, made this
clarifications at a briefing on Tuesday. The
briefing was addressed jointly with the
Senior Director for African Affairs, Grant
Harris and Senior Director for
Development and Democracy Gayle
Smith, on Obama’s upcoming visit. The
text of the briefing was made available to
journalists in Abuja by the Information
Office of the Public Affairs Section of the
US Embassy. Rhodes said, “With respect
to Nigeria, we certainly believe that
Nigeria is a fundamentally important
country to the future of Africa. We’ve put
a lot of investment in the relationship
with Nigeria through their leadership of
ECOWAS, through the significant US
business investment in Nigeria and
through our security cooperation.
“Obviously, Nigeria is working through
some very challenging security issues
right now. And in that process, they’re
going to be a partner of the United
States. We certainly believe we’ll have an
opportunity to further engage the
Nigerian government through bilateral
meetings going forward. But at this point,
we just were not able to make it to
Nigeria on this particular itinerary. “I will
say that we purposefully designed the
itineraries to be able to reach West Africa,
South Africa and East Africa, and in West
Africa, to visit Senegal, a French-speaking,
Muslim-majority democracy that is an
important partner of the United States
and also provides a platform for the
President to speak to the broader region.
“We are also looking at ways, at the
President’s town hall in South Africa with
young African leaders, to draw in through
technology young people in Nigeria and in
Kenya, among other places, so that the
President is using this trip to speak to the
broader African audience. We recognize
we’d like to go to as many countries as
possible.’’

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