The United States on Tuesday hinted on the reasons why President Barack
Obama won’t visit Nigeria during his upcoming 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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