The United States Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, in the Department of State, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has spoken about her first visit to Nigeria following her appointment during an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise.
Mrs Greenfield said that her visit was to strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries and follow-up on the meeting President Goodluck Jonathan held with President Barak Obama in New York, in September. “Nigeria is one of our largest partners in Africa,” she said.
“I came with my team to talk about issues that came up during those discussions.”
The discussions centred on improving the bi-lateral relationship between the two nations, security concerns involving the Boko Haram sect, oil theft and other issues.
“More particularly, we spoke about the issues related to Boko Haram and how to address the issues of terrorism being faced by Nigeria. Our view is that terrorism anywhere is terrorism everywhere and so what is happening here in Nigeria has an impact on its neighbours and other countries in the world and we want the government of Nigeria to succeed in its efforts to do away with terrorism in the North of Nigeria.”
She further disclosed that the United States government had made commitments to the federal government when the meeting held in September.
The commitments include providing training and assistance to the military on how they can address counter insurgencies as well as providing advice based on their good and bad experiences.
She also mentioned that they would pay special attention to ensure that the Nigerian military is sensitive to the impact of its anti-terrorism activities on communities and to ensure that human rights violations are not committed.
She added that the discussion between the two presidents held in New York was good and very productive.
Issues of oil bunkering were also part of the discussions and another team from the United States’ government is expected to arrive in Port Harcourt, on Saturday. The team will also hold meetings with government on how to address the problem.
