President Barack Obama
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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