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The United States has
announced an additional 40-million-dollar (N14 billion) aid to Nigeria to
address the humanitarian crisis arising from decades of the Boko Haram
insurgency. The Secretary of State, Mr Mike Pompeo, who made the announcement
in Washington DC on Tuesday, said this was in addition to nearly 350 million
dollars (N122.5 billion) in assistance provided by the U.S. last year.
Pompeo spoke during a joint media briefing
with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, after the
U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission (BNC) meeting hosted by the Department of
State. “The foreign minister (Onyeama) and I also discussed today the massive
humanitarian crisis that the conflict with Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa and
other religious and ethnic violence.
“We know that these issues are hard. We know that they’re
complicated. “But I strongly encouraged the Nigerian government to do more to
protect its civilians, including religious communities and the humanitarian
organisations seeking to assist them. “To aid in this effort, I’m pleased to
announce today an additional 40 million dollars in humanitarian assistance to
Nigeria, adding to the nearly 350 million dollars that we provided last year,’’
he said. The BNC is a platform for the Nigerian and U.S. governments to expand
cooperation and advance shared goals in the areas of trade and investment,
development, good governance and security. Pompeo said the two-day meeting also
featured discussions on security cooperation between both countries, especially
Nigeria’s “recent purchase’’ of 12 U.S.-made A-29 fighter planes worth 500
million dollars. The sale of the aircraft, according to him, is in support of
President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of building “a security force with the best
training and modern weaponry.” He said the U.S. would “hold Nigeria to the
pledge’’ of ensuring that the country’s military operates with the highest
standards of respect for human rights. On his part, Onyeama described the
security challenges facing the country as an existential threat, but was quick
to note that they were being addressed with respect for human rights. “Of
course, we are faced with other security issues within Nigeria, and we know
that some of them cause disquiet amongst our partners and we are addressing a
number of those. “And in addressing those internal challenges, and especially
in the security area, we absolutely make it clear and strive to uphold human
rights. “We have the greatest interest in protecting and respecting the human
rights of our population and we do that,’’ he said. Find below transcript of
the briefing:
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Secretary Pompeo: Well, good morning, everyone. It’s my pleasure to welcome you, M Minister, and your entire Nigerian delegation to Washington, DC. The foreign minister and I just completed a very productive conversation on how to continue to strengthen the economic and security ties between our two nations.
This is a real priority for us in the Trump administration in Africa, because Nigeria is Africa’s most populous democracy and its largest economy. On that note, let me begin and talk about our economic cooperation. Nigeria is already America’s second-largest trading partner in Africa. U.S. companies from Google to Chevron to KPMG invested over a billion dollars in Nigeria in 2018 alone, creating over 18,000 jobs and indirectly supporting 3 million others.
It’s what American companies do. It’s what we do all over the world every day, and they do it in a spirit of transparency and partnerships with the host nations. The foreign minister and I discussed how we can tighten our trade ties even further, including in infrastructure investment. Embracing free market policies that attract capital – private capital, ensuring consistent enforcement of the law, and doubling down on anti-corruption efforts are the surest way to grow prosperity in Nigeria and all across the region. And we’re pleased, too, that President Buhari has prioritised that fight against corruption. In support of that fight, I am announcing today that the United States and Nigeria have signed an agreement to return to the Nigerian people more than $308 million in assets stolen by a former dictator.
Now I’ll turn to our
security cooperation, which has also been expanding. Case in point: Nigeria’s
recent $500 million purchase of 12 U.S.-made A-29 aircraft. This supports
President Buhari’s recently stated goal of creating “a security force with the
best training and modern weaponry.” He also pledged that those forces “will be
held to the highest standards of… respect for human rights.” The United States
will hold Nigeria to that pledge, and we’ll help you achieve it. The United
States has already invested in the training of Nigeria’s military on human
rights and the Law of Armed Conflict. Nigeria was one of the first African
nations to joint the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. America is now supporting
the Nigerian fight against ISIS’s largest global affiliate, ISIS-West Africa –
a dangerous threat to both of our countries. In part due to this terrorism
threat, on Friday, President Trump announced the suspension of immigrant visas
for Nigerians because Nigeria has room to grow in sharing important national
security information. I am optimistic that’s going to happen. In the proclamation,
President Trump highlighted Nigeria’s importance as a strategic partner in the
global fight against terrorism and recognised the government’s commitment to
improving information sharing with us. The foreign minister and I also
discussed today the massive humanitarian crisis that the conflict with Boko
Haram and ISIS-West Africa and other religious and ethnic violence.
We know that these issues are hard. We know that they’re
complicated. But I strongly encouraged the Nigerian government to do more to
protect its civilians, including religious communities and the humanitarian
organizations seeking to assist them. To aid in this effort, I’m pleased to announce
today an additional $40 million in humanitarian assistance to Nigeria, adding
to the nearly $350 million that we provided last year. In closing, I want to
thank you for being here with me today, for joining us with a big delegation to
work to address all of these important opportunities that our two nations have
between us.
Thank you.
Foreign Minister Onyeama: Thank you very much, Secretary.
Well, first of all, I’d
like to say it’s been a great pleasure to be back in Washington to attend the
Binational Commission between the United States and Nigeria.
This commission for us is a very important and valued
framework for the cooperation between our two countries. And as the Secretary
has said, we came with a large delegation. And of course, this showed the
importance that we attach to our bilateral relations between our two countries.
And the themes of our Binational Commission really keys in to the vision of our
president, President Muhammadu Buhari. And so for us, it’s extremely important
to develop the roadmap of that vision within the framework of our bilateral
cooperation. We – the three thematic areas that we dealt with, which were also
mentioned by the Secretary – of course, security. Security for us has become a
major issue, an existential threat. But of course, we know that terrorism is a
global threat, and we appreciate and value very much the cooperation that we’ve
received from the United States Government. As the Secretary mentioned, there
are some fighter planes, A-29 Super Tucanos, that we hope to be able to procure
to help us in this fight. But there are other areas – sharing of intelligence
with our partners – that the United States has been supporting us in. We
appreciate very much that support. Of course, we are faced with other security
issues within Nigeria, and we know that some of them causes disquiet amongst
our partners, and we are addressing a number of those. And in addressing those
internal challenges, and especially in the security area, we absolutely make it
clear and strive to uphold human rights. We have the greatest interest in
protecting the – and respecting the human rights of our population, and we do
that. Of course, the other area that we’ve discussed has been democracy and
governance. And as the Secretary has mentioned – and we thank again the United
States for it – the sums of money that was restituted to Nigeria with the
Bailiwick, it’s called, of Jersey and the United States, $321 million, we
appreciate the effort in – and steps that have been taken in accessing these
stolen funds. And it’s an area that we prioritize in our country because huge
resources have been siphoned out of our country. And of course, in some of
these cases it takes a bit longer than we would like to have these funds
returned to our country, but we’re working very closely with the United States
and we appreciate the support being provided in recovering and repatriating
these illicit financial flow funds, and also, of course, as I said, the
government of Jersey. And corruption has been a real scourge for our country,
and our president, President Muhammadu Buhari, has made the fight against
corruption one of the real key areas and priorities of the government. And it
has not been easy, but it is one that we are determined to win. And it impacts
all aspects of our countries, and also recovering stolen funds is another area
that we absolutely prioritize. Then a third area, of course, that we discussed
and that is part of the partnership that we have with the United States is on
economic development. We went through a recession in our country, and we have
had what we would call a mono-economy, where we’ve essentially depended on one
commodity, petroleum oil. And as our president would say, once the price of oil
came crashing, our economy went crashing with it. So diversification of our
economy has been something that our president has prioritised, and in
particular agriculture. And we’re trying to promote foreign direct investment
and want much greater investments in our countries. During the Binational
Commission we looked at some of the statistics of the trade between the United
States and Nigeria, and for two big countries it’s – it really is just too low.
And we honestly believe that there’s just so much more we can and we should be
doing together.
Of course, there have been maybe some disincentives. In the
past, we have power challenges in our country, infrastructure, and of course,
as I mentioned, governance has also been an issue. But working with the United
States, we believe that there’s a lot that the U.S. can do in also promoting
and encouraging U.S. businesses to come and invest in Nigeria. President Buhari
has put in place measures to make Nigeria a more attractive place to invest in.
We have an Enabling Business Environment Council that’s been set up under the
vice president, and we have sort of striven to move Nigeria up the World Bank
rating on ease of doing business. And we are moving in the right direction, and
we feel that we are ready for business and certainly hope that, again, with our
partners in the U.S. that we will be able to attract more investment. We also
want to export a lot more, developing our manufacturing and industrial base.
And I know, of course, the U.S. market is a very attractive market for us. And
you also have the African Growth Opportunities Act. Again, we are very thankful
for that mechanism and the facility that allows African countries to have some
preferential access to the U.S. market. And of course, there’s some challenges
we face, and one of them is the phytosanitary challenges with regard – for our
agricultural products. And we hope to really work with the U.S. to work through
that so that we don’t face these market access issues. And of course, on the
way here or just before coming, we were somewhat blindsided with the
announcement of the visa restrictions by the U.S. And of course, a lot of
people back home in Nigeria understood it and put different interpretations and
different spins on it. But it’s essentially very straightforward. It was very
gratifying to come here, speaking to U.S. officials and to understand more
clearly the reasoning behind this. And essentially, there are security measures
that were taken with regards to passports – electronic passports, lost and
stolen passports, data being shared, criminal histories being made available
and shared, known terrorists and suspected terrorist information also being
made available. And we’ve identified all those requirements and we had actually
started working on all of them. And we know – and the U.S. officials have also
confirmed – that we have been able to tick most of those boxes. With regards to
lost and stolen passports, we’re putting in place the architecture that will
now make that – the information and the data on that immediately available to
the U.S. and all the member states, member countries of Interpol. And we hope
to have that up and running very soon and no longer going through third
parties. And hopefully once that has been achieved, we look forward to being taken
off this visa restriction list. But really have to say, Mr. Secretary, that we
do appreciate very much and value very much the cooperation between our two
countries in very important areas for us. And the Binational Commission, we’ve
identified a very clear basis to move that on and progress, and we really look
forward to seeing a lot of gains, win-wins, for our two countries. And last but
not the least, to thank you again, Mr. Secretary. We know you’ve just come back
from a very long trip. But nevertheless, you’ve taken the time to be here with
us and afford us the opportunity to listen very attentively – and very
sympathetically, I might say – to the points that we had to make. And we had an
excellent meeting before coming out here, and we’re very, very optimistic that
we’ll build on this friendship between our two countries. So thank you very
much once again.
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