Below
is what President Obama said to President Buhari and his entourage...
Well, it’s a great pleasure to welcome President Buhari and his
delegation here to the Oval Office for his first visit since the historic
election that took place. Nigeria is obviously one of the important countries
in the world and one of the most important countries in the African continent.
Recently, we saw an election in which a peaceful transition to a new government
took place.
And it was an affirmation of Nigeria’s commitment to democracy, a recognition that although Nigeria is a big country and a diverse country with many different parts, nevertheless the people of Nigeria understand that only through a peaceful political process can change take place.
President Buhari comes into office with
a reputation for integrity and a very clear agenda, and that is to make sure
that he is bringing safety and security and peace to his country.
He’s very concerned about the spread of
Boko Haram and the violence that’s taken place there, and the atrocities that
they’ve carried out, and has a very clear agenda in defeating Boko Haram and
extremists of all sorts inside of his country. And he has a very clear agenda
with respect to rooting out the corruption that too often has held back the
economic growth and prosperity of his country.
On both these issues, we’re looking
forward to hearing more about his plans and how the United States can partner
with Nigeria so that Nigeria ends up being an anchor not only of prosperity and
stability in the eastern part of the continent, but can also be an outstanding
role model for developing countries around the world.
And we very much look forward to
talking about security issues, how we can cooperate on counterterrorism. We’re
looking forward to discussing how we can be helpful in addressing some of the
corruption issues that have held Nigeria back, and unleashing the incredible
talent of the Nigerian people. We all recognize that some of the best
businesspeople in the world are from Nigeria, and they thrive as they travel to
other countries, but we want to make sure that they’re also helping folks
thrive in Nigeria.
We’re also going to have an opportunity
to talk about some of the other areas where Nigeria has taken leadership — in
public health issues, fighting tragedies like Ebola. Nigeria has an outstanding
track record working with us to eradicate polio, and that gives us a framework
and a template to continue to work on public health issues throughout the
western part of Africa, as well as throughout the subcontinent.
We’ll have a chance to talk about
issues of climate change, electrification. As many of you know, Power Africa is
one of our top priorities, making sure that we’re electrifying the continent so
that it can grow faster and more people have access to the power that they
need.
So we’ve got a busy agenda, but I want
to emphasize how much I appreciate President Buhari’s work so far. I’m looking
forward to seeing him put together his team so that we can do everything that
we can to help him succeed and help the people of Nigeria succeed. Because if
they’re successful and doing well, that will have a ripple effect not only in
West Africa, but throughout the world.
So thank you very much.
What President Buhari said
Nigeria will remain ever grateful to
President Obama and the United States for making Nigeria to consolidate its
gains on a democratic system. The visit of the Secretary of State, when he
visited Nigeria to see the President and the whole government of Nigeria, see
the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission for Nigeria, and saw
the operation was very clear and a positive trend that saw us through for this
credible election we had.
And the maintenance of pressure by the
United States, mainly, and Europe, to make sure that the elections were free,
fair and credible led us to where we are now. It would have been almost
impossible if the United States did not maintain the pressure on the former
Nigerian government, but they would not accept anything less constitutional as
far as the processes of the election are concerned. We will ever remain grateful
to you because there are fundamental objectives that are identify all of
Nigeria’s people’s Congress — security, economy, employment especially of
youth, and then fighting corruption.
We are extremely happy that the United
States had made it absolutely clear before the election that they are prepared
to help Nigeria in this aspect. And this is why I am here, and I am very
grateful for the invitation Mr. President extended to me.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
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