After
wecoming General Muhammadu Buhari and his 33-man delegation to the
United States on Monday, July 20, 2015, President Barack Obama said,
“Well, it’s a
great pleasure to welcome President Buhari and his delegation here to
the Oval Office for his first visit since the historic election that
took place.
Nigeria is
obviously one of the important countries in the world and one of the
most important countries in the African continent. Recently, we saw an
election in which a peaceful transition to a new government took place.
And it was an
affirmation of Nigeria’s commitment to democracy, a recognition that
although Nigeria is a big country and a diverse country with many
different parts, nevertheless the people of Nigeria understand that only
through a peaceful political process can change take place.
President
Buhari comes into office with a reputation for integrity and a very
clear agenda, and that is to make sure that he is bringing safety and
security and peace to his country.
He’s very
concerned about the spread of Boko Haram and the violence that’s taken
place there, and the atrocities that they’ve carried out, and has a very
clear agenda in defeating Boko Haram and extremists of all sorts inside
of his country. And he has a very clear agenda with respect to rooting
out the corruption that too often has held back the economic growth and
prosperity of his country.
On both these
issues, we’re looking forward to hearing more about his plans and how
the United States can partner with Nigeria so that Nigeria ends up being
an anchor not only of prosperity and stability in the eastern part of
the continent, but can also be an outstanding role model for developing
countries around the world.
And we very
much look forward to talking about security issues, how we can cooperate
on counterterrorism. We’re looking forward to discussing how we can be
helpful in addressing some of the corruption issues that have held
Nigeria back, and unleashing the incredible talent of the Nigerian
people. We all recognize that some of the best businesspeople in the
world are from Nigeria, and they thrive as they travel to other
countries, but we want to make sure that they’re also helping folks
thrive in Nigeria.
We’re also
going to have an opportunity to talk about some of the other areas where
Nigeria has taken leadership — in public health issues, fighting
tragedies like Ebola. Nigeria has an outstanding track record working
with us to eradicate polio, and that gives us a framework and a template
to continue to work on public health issues throughout the western part
of Africa, as well as throughout the subcontinent.
We’ll have a
chance to talk about issues of climate change, electrification. As many
of you know, Power Africa is one of our top priorities, making sure that
we’re electrifying the continent so that it can grow faster and more
people have access to the power that they need.
So we’ve got a busy agenda, but I want to emphasize how much I appreciate President Buhari’s work so far.
I’m looking
forward to seeing him put together his team so that we can do everything
that we can to help him succeed and help the people of Nigeria succeed.
Because if they’re successful and doing well, that will have a ripple
effect not only in West Africa, but throughout the world.
So thank you very much.”
Below is Buhari’s response,
“Nigeria will
remain ever grateful to President Obama and the United States for making
Nigeria to consolidate its gains on a democratic system.
The visit of
the Secretary of State, when he visited Nigeria to see the President and
the whole government of Nigeria, see the Chairman of Independent
National Electoral Commission for Nigeria, and saw the operation was
very clear and a positive trend that saw us through for this credible
election we had.
And the
maintenance of pressure by the United States, mainly, and Europe, to
make sure that the elections were free, fair and credible led us to
where we are now. It would have been almost impossible if the United
States did not maintain the pressure on the former Nigerian government,
but they would not accept anything less constitutional as far as the
processes of the election are concerned. We will ever remain grateful to
you because there are fundamental objectives that are identify all of
Nigeria’s people’s Congress — security, economy, employment especially
of youth, and then fighting corruption.
We are
extremely happy that the United States had made it absolutely clear
before the election that they are prepared to help Nigeria in this
aspect. And this is why I am here, and I am very grateful for the
invitation Mr. President extended to me.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
(Photo Credit: Nigerianewsupdates)
posted by jesse
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