• I will Ensure Free, Fair Elections In 2015, Says Jonathan
PRESIDENT
Barack Obama had a very frank discussion with Nigeria’s President
Goodluck Jonathan last Monday in New York, according to sources in the
US who disclosed that the Nigerian leader was told to put his acts
together and help realise the Nigerian potential.
Few days
after the historic 40-minute meeting with Obama, President Jonathan has
submitted himself for a media chat Sunday at 7pm.
According to a
statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the programme, which will be transmitted
live on NTA Network, FRCN and other public and private TV and radio
stations across the country, will see Jonathan answer questions from a
panel of journalists on current national issues and events, as well as
policies and actions of his administration over the past months.
Unlike the previous editions of the Presidential Media Chat (PMC),
where the president had only the panelists and callers on phone– when
the lines are through– to contend with, Jonathan will on Sunday
entertain questions from millions of Nigerians on Twitter, who have been
given a go ahead by Dr. Abati to send in their queries via Twitter to
@mediachatng1.
During the almost one-hour meeting, insiders say
the discussion went from being very frank to very cordial, but ending
very fruitful to both countries whose relationship had developed a
strain after President Obama went to Africa without stopping in Nigeria.
The Monday meeting at the Waldorf Astoria was scheduled to
start at 1.45pm and end 2.25pm, but went on till 2.35pm, which made the
Nigerian President briefly late to New York Stock Exchange meeting with
Hedge Fund investors.
Although details of the meeting, which
was also attended by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, the US
National Security Adviser, Ms. Susan Rice, Ms. Linda Thomas-Greenfield,
the new US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, among others were
sketchy over the weekend, it was learnt that the US team secured
guarantees from President Jonathan on a number of issues especially the
2015 elections, Boko Haram, corruption among others.
For
instance, with the background of the build-up to 2015 already
overheating the Nigerian polity, the US President and his team at the
presidential meeting held at Waldorf Astoria made Jonathan to commit to
ensuring a credible, free and fair election in 2015, promising that the
federal government would ensure it happens.
But the Nigerian
team, besides the President, also included the Foreign Affairs Minister
of State Viola Onwuliri, Ambassador Ade Adefuye, Presidential Principal
Private Secretary, Ambassador Hassan Tukur among others.
In a
veiled reference to Obama’s Africa travel plan living out Nigeria,
President Jonathan was also said to have made it clear to the Americans
that the US cannot fix the word without fixing Africa, and Africa cannot
be fixed without Nigeria- a line for which the Nigerian Ambassador to
the US, Prof Adefuye had become popular in US official circles.
A White House statement quoted Obama, at the open part of the meeting
before going behind closed door, as saying “President Jonathan has
committed to building on the democratic process that we’ve seen in
Nigeria in the past. The last election that brought President Jonathan
to power was a hallmark on the continent and in Nigeria in terms of free
and fair elections. And I know that he is committed to making sure
that the elections in 2015 move in that same fashion.”
Sources said Jonathan made it very clear that one of his legacy would be free and fair elections.
While the US President promised that the American government would now
upgrade its assistance in fighting Boko Haram, especially in the
backdrop of the Nairobi Mall terror attack, Jonathan was also tasked on
the need to pay attention to the prevailing circumstances that encourage
recruitment of terrorists in parts of northern Nigeria.
Sources disclosed that during the meeting President Obama said the US
was close to formally adopting a policy that will determine that Boko
Haram is a national security threat to the US as well.
In
effect, the US-Nigeria Bi-National Commission, BNC would now adopt
Regional Security as a major component and through the auspices of that
commission the US will offer for support and engage the Nigerian
government more in the fight against terrorism in the country.
A
White House statement after the meeting quoted Obama as saying that
Boko Haram is one of the most vicious terrorist groups today in the
world.
Said he: “In the northern regions of Nigeria we’ve seen
the emergence of one of the most vicious terrorist organisations in the
world, the Boko Haram.
The US President added that this
“presents an extraordinary security challenge for the people of Nigeria,
and we want to be cooperative in that process of building capacity
inside Nigeria to deal with that terrorist threat, but doing so in a way
that is consistent with human rights.”
Obama added that “
because we strongly believe that the best way to undermine the agenda of
those who would do violence is to make sure that governments are
responsive to the needs of people and following rule of law.”
Although
he was said to have been very frank to President Jonathan on a number
of issues at the meeting, US sources said President Obama also paid
tribute to Nigeria’s rising significance in Africa and the growing
influence of President Jonathan personally and urged the Nigerian leader
live up to those possibilities and heal the country.
In fact
in the press release put out by the White House after the meeting, it
was noted that President Obama referred to President Jonathan’s visit to
the New York Exchange as evidence of his rising profile in the
estimation of global investors.
According to Obama in that
White House statement “Nigeria is one of the most powerful and
fastest-growing countries in the world. I think that’s testified by the
fact that President Jonathan is going to have the opportunity to ring
the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. I think it signifies how
important Nigeria is becoming in the global economy.”
Sources
from official circles, both in the US and Nigeria, noted that the
Obama-Jonathan effectively restored the strained relationship following
the Obama Africa trip. For instance it was noted that Nigeria was the
only nation with whom Obama had a bilateral meeting in Africa during his
UN trip last week. And out of the three meetings with foreign heads of
states all together, Nigeria’s meeting was the first.
A diplomatic source noted that this was the proof of Nigeria’s significance in Africa and global issues.
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