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:
==============================
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 a 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.
Secretary Pompeo: Thank
you.
Foreign Minister Onyeama:
Thank you.
Secretary Pompeo: Thanks,
everybody.