CONTRARY to recent reports (not from sharpedgenews.com) that the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have excluded Nigeria from her itinerary on her final official visit to Africa, top-level sources revealed to sharpedgnews.com on Thursday that she would be visiting Nigeria as part of her stops after all.
The news of Ms. Clinton’s visit is the latest confirmation of the earlier report of the visit by sharpedgenews.com. Originally scheduled for on or around August 2nd, the visit to Nigeria on August 9 would be the last stop by Ms. Clinton, following her departure from South Africa where it is expected that she would meet with former President Nelson Mandela.
Other countries that the secretary is expected to visit on her 11-day trip to Africa include Senegal, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa.
Should US President Obama win a second term in office, Mrs. Clinton will not be returning to office as secretary of state
During her visit, Mrs. Clinton and President Jonathan are expected to discuss the “elevated vistas” in the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and the United States, apart from fashioning out a bilateral commission for the two countries.
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. US 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.