John Kerry To Visit Nigeria Next Week

U.S Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Nigeria next week to hold talks with President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior government officials.

The talks will focus on regional issues, the insurgency in the North east, human rights issues in Nigeria and Nigeria’s dwindling economy, the State Department spokesman, John Kirby said in a statement yesterday, August 18.

Kerry played a huge part before and after Nigeria’s general elections last year.  He arrived in Lagos, on January 25, 2015 for talks with then President Goodluck Jonathan and eventual winner, Muhammadu Buhari regarding the elections. Kerry made the visit in order to urge Nigeria not to postpone the elections and plead with the candidates to prevent their supporters from resorting to violence in the polls.

 At the time, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former Nigerian minister of foreign affairs, said Kerry broke a standing US rule to visit Nigeria few days to the elections. According to him, a top United States official is not expected to visit any country few days to the country’s general election, stating that Kerry broke the rule for the sake of a peace violence-free election in Nigeria.