-Jonathan Speaks at Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary
The United States’ Secretary of State, Hillary R. Clinton, is expected to pay what would be her last official visit to
Nigeria within the next two weeks, in order to meet with Nigeria’s President Goodluck E. Jonathan to discuss further protocols concerning the US-Nigeria Bilateral Commission.
Sharpedgenews.com received confirmation that the visit which would have held by August 2, 2012 as earlier suggested by the US State Department has now been shifted to hold around August 10, when the recently deceased Ghanaian president, Mr. John Atta Mills, would be buried.
“Mrs. Clinton would meet with President Jonathan, but would use the opportunity to have a stop-over in Ghana,” revealed our State Department source who spoke under the option of anonymity as the details of the trip are still kept under wraps. Sharpedgenews.com has also found corroboration with our contacts in Abuja.
Apart from the US-Nigeria Bilateral Commission protocol, Mrs. Clinton and President Jonathan are also expected to discuss the “elevated vistas” in the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
Hillary Clinton as a matter of finality is not returning to office as Secretary of State after President Obama’s first term in office. The meeting with Jonathan is being spiked as her farewell to the people of Africa, and the choice of Nigeria, the most populous on the continent, is instructive in that regard.
While in Nigeria, our sources revealed that she and her Nigerian counterpart, Mr. Olugbenga Ashiru, would discuss the elevated status of US relations with Nigeria, the areas of possible co-operation in terms of challenges being faced in Nigeria,
As recently reported exclusively by sharpedgenews.com, the two internationalists, Ashiru and Clinton, would unveil the new regime of 5-year multiple visas for the two countries non-immigrant travelers in the first instance.
Of utmost importance for deliberations would be the violent agitations of the Islamic Boko Haram sect. There would, however, be an unapologetic demand by the Nigerian side that Boko Haram should not be given the importance the group does not deserve, so as not to open a floodgate for Al-Qaeda anarchists to be in solidarity with the outlaws.
Nigeria has always argued that Boko Haram is an internal insurrection that would be surmounted with evolving strategies. So the case would be strongly made to Mrs. Clinton that the same country which resolved the disagreement with a better focused and a better-equipped, angry Niger-Delta youths, would ultimately quash Boko Haram.
As the Chief Salesman of his country, one of our Abuja sources said that “Mr. Jonathan strongly believes that giving Boko Haram an underserved elevation by being designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, F.T.O., would cause a setback for the country’s investment drive because “the development would stifle the foreign cash that has started trickling into the country.”
Nigeria has launched a blistering lobby to make sure that the desire of neo-con(servatives) to use the Boko Haram issue as a political weapon do not overwhelm the Obama Administration.
To count on the support of Republicans in their hawkish attempt at using the FTO status to flog President Obama, who has so far trumped Al-Qaeda by killing Osama bin Laden, would look like hoping to get cash from an empty vault. They would make the case that Obama is a weakling for not going after Boko Haram.
“The truth is that Boko Haram is a domestic problem and President Jonathan feels strongly that Nigeria ultimately does a good job of resolving its internal strife,” said sharpedgenews.com’s Abuja source.
Jonathan’s best bet would be to anchor effectively on the democrat-controlled senate as he holds a divergent position with the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Ayo Oritsejafor, who without adequate understanding of the deep bigotry amongst American Republican lawmakers sheepishly strayed into their den by naively asking for FTO status for Boko Haram. Republicans do not view Africans as important strategic foreign allies. Their policies undermine comprehensive immigration reforms that ensure that Africans live in penury because they don’t have work permit. And they don’t have policies that show respect for African immigrants.
The most important point that Jonathan is said to be keen on making to Clinton is said to be the need to proceed with caution, as designating Boko Haram as FTO would make every Nigerian a political suspect, assumed guilty until proven innocent at every point of entry in the world. This particular point, in the views of Abuja diplomats and Aso Rock experts, would throw the spanner in the works of the progress so far made in the two countries bilateral relations.
The United States is said to be have appreciated Nigeria’s progress in the war against trans-border trafficking of narcotic substances, the war against money laundering, electoral reforms and sustainable democracy, a vibrant press and woman suffrage. The country is also said to have appreciated Nigeria’s war against corruption and fraud, but wants more to be done in the area of regional stability. The country is also pleased with the removal of illegal check points and drastic reduction in brutality from the men and women in uniform in Nigeria.
Our sources said that Jonathan would not meet Mrs. Clinton on the August 2, 2012 date suggested by the State Department because of an invitation accepted over a year ago to attend and speak as a guest of honor during Jamaica’s 50th independence celebrations. Jonathan enjoys the status of being the president of the biggest and most militarily powerful black country in the world.