By Siojare Uvoh
US President Joseph Biden will send a powerful delegation to the swearing-in of Nigeria’s President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on May 29, 2023 at Eagle Square I seein Abuja.
The move by Mr. Biden is seen as strategic by international relations experts who say that the US cannot allow Nigeria to fall under the influence of China it’s global rival. Though the US weren’t comfortable with the conduct of the election that brought Tinubu in, they had no choice but to embrace the President-elect.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, already called Tinubu on the phone and had a lengthy conversation much to the chagrin of Peter Obi and Abubakar Atiku, the Labour Party and People Democratic Party candidates who are changing Tinubu’s election at the Presidential Election Petition Court.
Among the delegation listed by President Biden as revealed by Whitehouse website are Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, Marcia L. Fudge, Nigerian-born Enoh Titilayo Ebong, director at the United States Trade and Development Agency.
Mr. David Greene, Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy Abuja, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, United States Representative (D), California, Marisa Lago, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, U.S. Department of Commerce, General Michael E. Langley, Commander of U.S. Africa Commands, Mary Catherine Phee, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Judd Devermont, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council and Monde Muyangwa Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development.
Tinubu will have his first day in office barring any unfavorable court ruling on May 29 bring an end to the eight years rule of President Muhammadu Buhari. Nigerians are hopeful of a new era…it remains to be seen if Tinubu has the magic wand to reverse an ugly trend of infrastructural decay, retarded economic/ social growth and most of all insecurity.