Below is what President Obama said to
President Buhari and his entourage…
Well, it’s a great pleasure to welcome
President Buhari and his delegates
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.
