Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes on Tuesday revealed that Nigeria’s insecurity crisis might have contributed to President Barack Obama decision to exclude the country from his latest visit to Africa.
In a joint briefing with Senior Director for African Affairs, Grant Harris and Senior Director for Development and Democracy, Gayle Smith on President Obama’s upcoming visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, Rhodes however confirmed that this exclusion holds no consequences for bilateral relations between Nigeria and the U.S.
“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 U.S. business investment in Nigeria and through our security cooperation,” he said.
“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.”
He added that time only permit Obama to visit these three countries but the plan is to speak with the broader region in each country and employ technology in doing this.
