Saturday, June 4, 2011

Nigeria's Jonathan to visit White House

US President Barack Obama will welcome Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to the White House on June 8, officials said Saturday.

Obama "looks forward to consulting with President Jonathan on the latest regional and global developments, and deepening our strong bilateral partnership," his spokesman said in a statement.

The Nigerian presidency said Jonathan, who will leave Nigeria on Monday, would also take part in the United Nations high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS and the launch of a project aimed at eliminating HIV mother-to-child transmission with former US president Bill Clinton. He would return to Nigeria on Friday.

Nigeria is currently one of the nine non-permanent members of the UN Security Council and Jonathan was also expected to take part in one of the Security Council sessions that may decide on a second term for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the statement said.

It said 12 foreign leaders, mostly from Africa, had confirmed their participation at the HIV/AIDS summit.

Jonathan was sworn in last weekend for a four-your term as leader of Africa's most populous country and a major supplier of crude to the US.

The Nigerian leader's visit comes amid renewed tension in his country, after a series of blasts rocked Nigeria following his swearing-in, killing 18 people.

A southern Christian, Jonathan defeated ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the north, in a April 16 poll that led to an explosion of rioting in Nigeria which killed more than 800 people.

In early May Obama commended Nigeria's elections, where he said the majority of ballots were cast free from intimidation, signalling a strong future for democracy, but he slammed the post-poll unrest as "deplorable."

Violence, he said, "has no place in a democratic society, and it is the responsibility of all Nigerians to reject it."

Jonathan's visit this week comes a day before Obama welcomes another west African leader, Gabon's Ali Bongo, to the White House to discuss strategic regional and bilateral topics.

The administration meanwhile this week announced an initiative to engage Africa with a visit by First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha to South Africa and Botswana later in the month.



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