THE AFRICA BAZAAR STAFF
March 1, 2021
The U.S. State department said Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama spoke on Monday and reaffirmed the U.S.-Nigeria long-term special alliance.
During the call, Secretary Blinken laid out a “holistic approach to the U.S.-Nigeria partnership based on our shared values of democracy, respect for human rights, and robust people-to-people relations,” as well as underscored the steps America has taken to refresh relations” the State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
The Secretary also noted President Biden’s cancelling of the previous administration’s immigrant visa ban on Nigeria as “affirmation of the close ties between Americans and Nigerians.”
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The two nations’ top diplomats also acknowledged the threats that violent extremists such as Boko Haram pose to Nigerian and regional security and discussed new ways to combat terrorism in the northeast and provide national security throughout the country.
A series of human rights abuses and violence in recent months—including the latest kidnappings of 317 teenage school girls from their boarding school in the country’s Northeast during the earlier morning hours of February 26—has put Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and most populous country back in a harmful spotlight.
Secretary Blinked lauded Nigeria’s President Buhari’s recent appointment of military service chiefs to set new path to tackle terrorism in the northeast and provide national security throughout the country.
Secretary Blinken told Foreign Minister Onyeama the U.S. will continue to show its support for former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala as she takes over as the new Director General of the World Trade Organization.
