Barack Obama welcomed Nigeria’s new president to the Oval Office on Monday and praised him for working to bring “safety, security and peace” to a nation challenged by economic strains, a history of corruption and violence unleashed by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.
Obama met with President Muhammadu Buhari less than eight weeks after Buhari took office, to underscore the importance the US attaches to good relations with Nigeria.
The US president said Buhari had “a very clear agenda in defeating Boko Haram and extremists of all sorts inside of his country.
“And he has a very clear agenda in terms of rooting out the corruption that too often has held back the economic growth and prosperity of his country,” Obama said.
Obama, speaking to reporters at the outset of the meeting, said the US hoped to partner with the African nation “so that Nigeria ends up being not only an anchor of prosperity and stability in the eastern part of the continent, but can also be an outstanding role model for developing countries around the world”.
He said he would discuss with Buhari how the two nations can cooperate on counter-terrorism and how the US “can be helpful in addressing some of the corruption issues that have held Nigeria back”.
Buhari said Nigeria would be “ever grateful” to the US for its support of free elections in his country. Buhari said US and European pressures to ensure the election was “fair and credible led us to where we are now”.
US relations with Nigeria soured over failures by the government and military, including the inability to locate more than 200 schoolgirls, most of them Christian, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram from the northern town of Chibok in April 2014. The abduction led to international condemnation and a campaign to “Bring Back Our Girls” that reached as far as the White House.
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