[img]http://www..ng/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Obama.jpg[/img]

As the May 29 inauguration of
Nigeria’s President-elect and the
Vice President-elect draws closer,
pressure is mounting on the White
House on who to represent the
United States at the event.
While the immediate past U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State,
Johnnie Carson, is asking President
Barack Obama to send his deputy,
Vice President Joe Biden, to lead the
American delegation to the event, a
pro-Africa U.S. lobby group in
Washington DC and the Christian

Association of Nigerian-Americans,
CANAN are requesting President
Obama to attend the event himself.
In a press statement over the
weekend Mr. Carson, who had
advised Obama as the most senior
government official on Africa (after
the Secretary of State) until late
2013, however, requested that the
U.S. President visit Nigeria in July
while heading out to East Africa as
already announced.

The U.S. President is not ready yet
to announce a delegation to the
Nigeria’s presidential swearing-in
ceremony on May 29. according to
Natalie Wozniak, a White House
spokesperson.
But such an announcement is
expected in the forthcoming week
based on traditional practices by
the White House.
There has been news reports and
claims that Mr. Obama is planning
to send a high-powered,
presidential scale delegation
possibly led by his wife, the VP or
the U.S. Secretary of State.
Specifically regarding the Buhari-
Osinbajo inauguration, Ambassador
Carson noted that “President
Obama should send a high level
delegation to President Buhari’s
inauguration in Abuja on May 29.

According to him, “this delegation
should be led by Vice President Joe
Biden, who engaged with both
President Jonathan and with
president-elect Buhari in the run-
up to the presidential election.”
Continuing, the former U.S. official
said if Mr. Biden “is unable to go,
Secretary of State John Kerry,
National Security Advisor Susan
Rice, Homeland Security Secretary
Jeh Johnson or Agriculture
Secretary Thomas Vilsack should
lead the delegation, which should
include senior officials from
several cabinets departments,
including the Department of
Defense.”

In a similar vein, CANAN and
another leading U.S. group released
separate statements outrightly
asking the US President to be
personally present at the May 29
event in Abuja.
The group-Constituency for Africa-
is considered one of the leading
organizations in the US “committed
to educating and mobilizing the US
public on matters pertaining to
Africa.”
Its president, Melvin Foote, in the
statement argued that “last month,
Nigeria completed its election
process in a peaceful and
transparent manner.
While the U.S. applauded this
positive feat, our involvement
cannot conclude just yet.
In fact, in some ways, it is only just
beginning — which is why I
strongly urge President Barack
Obama to attend the inauguration
of President-Elect Mohammadu
Buhari on May 29.”

He stated that “President Obama’s
presence at this historic
inauguration would send the right
signal at the right time.
This election was a landmark
victory for democracy in Africa
and for struggling people elsewhere
around the world, and his
participation would make a
powerful statement of hope and
renewal.
Nigeria is in the balance. While it
is dealing with a brutal terrorism
campaign in the north, and
multiple other development
challenges elsewhere across the
country — still it is the largest
economy in a very important part
of the world and – is poised to
achieve much more in the years
ahead.”

CANAN, in its own statement asked
Mr. Obama to consider attending
the Buhari-Osinbajo inauguration
as a means of further spurring the
democratic fervour and ferment
which is currently at play in the
country.
According to the National
Secretariat of CANAN, “while with
the help of the LORD, Nigerians
take the lead in the credit for the
successful elections, the role of the
US President and government
cannot be over-emphasized.

“We remember how President
Barack Obama took time to
personally record and send an
official White House video message
to Nigerians ahead of the
presidential elections, saying all the
right things.
By attending the inauguration
personally, Obama will cap the
whole affair graciously and end the
controversial fallouts of the
exclusion of Nigeria in his prior
visits to Africa.
CANAN wishes the President take a
very deep reflection on this matter
and add a great spur to the ferment
of change that is ongoing in Nigeria
by being personally present at the
Buhari-Osinbajo inauguration on
May 29.

It will set a new tone not only in
US-Nigeria relations, but in US
relationship with Africa as a
whole.”
In his statement urging Mr. Obama
to visit Nigeria in July when he is
scheduled to visit Kenya and
Ethiopia, Mr, Carson said “it would
be deeply troubling for many
Nigerians to see Africa’s largest
democracy snubbed at this
important moment in its history.
Mr. Carson who advised Obama on
Africa all through his first term in
office and beyond conceded that
“relations between Abuja and
Washington have frayed over the
past two years, largely over security
issues and differences over the
handling of Boko Haram.”

He suggested that by sending a high
powered delegation to the
presidential inauguration in
Nigeria and then dropping by in
Nigeria on his way to East Africa in
July, President Obama can bring
about a new beginning between
Nigeria and the U.S. with the
emergence of the Buhari-Osinbajo
presidency.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/183170-pressure-mounts-on-obama-to-attend-buharis-inauguration.html

Cc. lalasticlala