International
interest in Nigeria’s political transition and the planned transfer of
power from the Jonathan-Sambo presidency to the Buhari-Osinbajo
presidency billed for May 29 has risen in the United States as President
Barack Obama now considers sending a high-powered U.S. delegation to
the event, officials said Wednesday.
U.S. government sources said Mr. Obama is considering who might lead the American representatives to the event.
Besides,
at least two US Ivy universities-Harvard and Yale – have since held
special review sessions where scholars were invited from around the U.S.
and the world to give lectures and seminars on the outcome of the
Nigerian elections, focusing on the emergence of a former military head
of state, who is a Muslim from the North of Nigeria, and a Christian
pastor, who is a law professor from the South as president-elect and
vice president-elect respectively.
Three names
are already being mentioned in official U.S. and diplomatic circles
including Obama’s wife, the American First Lady, Michelle, Vice
President Joe Biden and the Secretary of State, John Kerry, as the head
of the presidential delegation. From the U.S. Congress also, some of the
senior members are said to be planning to attend the event including
the Chairman of the US House of Representatives Sub Committee on Africa,
Congressman Chris Smith.
The U.S. President normally announces a
delegation to the presidential inaugurations of friendly nations being
led by the Ambassador in that country. But in rare occasions, he picks
very senior public officials as the head of delegation when he wants to
underscore and emphasis a point of how the US highly regards the country
or the circumstances at a given point in time.
Nigeria’s
Ambassador to the U.S., Ade Adefuye, said, “I have been told that there
would be an unusually large American delegation that will attend the
presidential inauguration on May 29″.
He confirmed to
journalists on Wednesday that he has also been told that a very senior
member of the U.S. government is expected to lead the delegation, but
that there was no confirmation yet.
The Nigerian Ambassador said
he has been in consultations with the U.S. State Department on the
matter, adding that President Goodluck Jonathan has already extended an
invitation to the U.S. government.
“We are following up with the
US government to ensure a very large US presence at the inauguration,”
the Ambassador said Tuesday in Washington DC.
Mr. Adefuye
explained that “Nigeria’s profile has been on the rise since after the
election, the concession by Jonathan, and with the smooth transition
that is going on”.
From the U.S. government to the business
sectors and think tanks, the level of excitement about the anticipated
peaceful transfer of power in Nigeria and the outcome of the elections
itself producing the Buhari-Osinbajo ticket from an opposition party,
APC, has been quite widespread.
Some of the U.S. groups that
have been showing keen interest to attend the inauguration and
pressuring the U.S. government to send a very high-powered delegation
are the Atlantic Council, and the Constituency for Africa-groups known
to be very influential in Washington DC.
A U.S. State Department
source noted that after the elections, feelers were sent out to
business groups, think tanks on interests in attending the Nigerian
inauguration, and the “feedback has been very encouraging,” said the
source.
At the Yale University over the weekend, a group of
theologians-the Oxford Study Group on World Christianity had their
annual meeting and participants disclosed that the Nigerian election was
one of the major discussions this year.
A top U.S. Professor
who attended the meeting said the Study Group composed of leading
scholars from around the world who considered it significant that the
Nigerian elections produced a Pentecostal pastor as Vice President to a
Moslem, who had earlier been perceived not to be religiously
pluralistic. Last month also, the Washington Post had published a report
on its faith pages on “How a Pentecostal Law Professor Has Helped
Reshape Nigerian Politics.”
Earlier Harvard Africa-American
Program had also held an academic review session on the Nigerian
election further revealing how widely significant the issue has become
here in the US.
Credit: Premium Times
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