Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua was to have his first meeting with United States President George Bush in Washington on Thursday, after US criticism of his election but admissions that Nigeria’s oil is important.
”The two leaders will discuss electoral reform and related issues, energy and the situation in the Niger Delta,” Bush’s spokesperson Dana Perino said in a statement last week.
”They will also discuss the ongoing crises in Somalia and Darfur,” she said.
US assistant secretary of state for African affairs Jendayi Frazer echoed Washington’s feeling of ”profound disappointment” at the conduct of the ”seriously flawed” elections that brought Yar’Adua to power in April, in a recent commentary that appeared in the Nigerian press.
But Frazer also called for ”a new phase in relations between the two countries”, adding ”now is the time to build a robust US-Nigeria partnership”.
As the world’s oil resources become ever more stretched, she noted: ”It is no secret that Nigeria is a significant part of US energy security and the fifth-largest source of our oil imports.”
While some Nigerian newspapers looked forward to an easing of difficult ties, they called on Yar’Adua to continue refusing to host the planned headquarters of a new US military command for Africa.
Yar’Adua said after talks with the US deputy secretary of state, who came to Abuja last month to sell the project, that no US base should be set up in Nigeria or the surrounding region.
”The acceptance of US military bases on African soil or near our coasts would amount to voluntary invitation to America’s antagonists to also come and camp here because the struggle like the ideological one is global in nature,” the daily Vanguard echoed. — Sapa-AFP