American Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes, made this clarifications at a briefing on Tuesday, speaking, “With respect to Nigeria, we certainly believe that Nigeria is a fundamentally important country to the future of Africa. We’ve put a lot of investment in the relationship with Nigeria through their leadership of ECOWAS, through the significant US business investment in Nigeria and through our security cooperation.
“Obviously, Nigeria is working through
some very challenging security issues right now. And in that process,
they’re going to be a partner of the United States. We certainly believe
we’ll have an opportunity to further engage the Nigerian government
through bilateral meetings going forward. But at this point, we just
were not able to make it to Nigeria on this particular itinerary.
“I will say that we purposefully
designed the itineraries to be able to reach West Africa, South Africa
and East Africa, and in West Africa, to visit Senegal, a
French-speaking, Muslim-majority democracy that is an important partner
of the United States and also provides a platform for the President to
speak to the broader region.
“We are also looking at ways, at the
President’s town hall in South Africa with young African leaders, to
draw in through technology young people in Nigeria and in Kenya, among
other places, so that the President is using this trip to speak to the
broader African audience. We recognize we’d like to go to as many
countries as possible.’’
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