Pressure Mounts On Obama To Attend Buhari’s
Inauguration In Person
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.
