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Tuesday,Apr 16,2013
SNAPSHOT: Dino Melaye’s car allegedly shot at by unknown gunmen in Abuja – See Tweets
by Akan IdoFormer House of Representatives member, Dino Melaye was said to have been attacked by yet unidentified i....
By associate editor(ynaija)
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Thursday,Apr 11,2013
On the contrary, it is we that should grant you pardon – Boko Haram
KANO (AFP) – The leader of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram has rejected the idea of any potential amnes....
By Vanguard
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Tuesday,Apr 09,2013
“Forgive Boko Haram as my late husband forgave the Niger Delta militants” – Turai Yar’Adua tells Jonathan
The wife of former President Umaru Yar’Adua, Turai Yar’Adua, has implored President Goodluck Jonathan t....
By Rachel Ogbu
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Monday,Apr 08,2013
Ekiti deputy governor, Funmilayo Olayinka dies of cancer at 52
Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Funmi Olayinka dancing during the special prayer session in her office to mark th....
By Y! City Editor
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Thursday,Apr 04,2013
Obama To Return 5 Percent Of His Salary In Solidarity With Furloughed Federal Workers
WASHINGTON -- Sharing a bit of budget pain, President Barack Obama will return 5 percent of his salary to the Treas....
By JOSH LEDERMAN
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Friday,Mar 22,2013
France's Sarkozy investigated in party-funding affair
Ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy was placed under formal investigation on Thursday for "abuse of weakness&q....
By Reuters
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Friday,Mar 22,2013
Putin Welcomes China's Xi for Landmark Talks
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and China's new leader Xi Jinping are to hold landmark talks on Friday in the hop....
By AFP
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Friday,Mar 22,2013
“No minister will get cleared without a PDP membership card’ – Bamanga Tukur
Henceforth all ministerial nominees must be card-carrying members of the Peoples Democratic Party else they will be....
By Rachel Ogbu
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Tuesday,Mar 19,2013
30 Killed in Blast at Motor Park in Kano
Over 30 people were killed following a bomb blast in a motor park in the Sabon Gari area of Kano State at about 4.0....
By Jakky Bankong-obi
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Wednesday,Mar 13,2013
FG Rejects Video Clip as Proof of Foreign Hostages’ Death
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga AshiruBy Ike Abonyi and Damilola Oyedele
T....
By Ike Abonyi and Damilola Oyedele
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Obama and the Politics of Africa Visit
By:
Jideofor Adibe
pcjadibe@yahoo.com
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The planned visits to Egypt and Ghana by President Obama on June 4, 2009 and July 10-11, 2009 respectively, have been generating some excitement, angst and recriminations. For the favoured countries, especially Ghana, there has been a certain chest thumping, a belief that the choice is a reward for good governance and/or an enhanced strategic importance of the country to the USA. Among the countries not favoured, in particular Nigeria, which prides itself as the giant of Africa, there is palpable anger among the citizens. The general consensus seems to be that the country was snubbed as a way of sending a powerful message to the government of the day that it has not lived up to expectations. Nigerians appear particularly slighted that it was ‘little’ Ghana that was chosen over their country, an apparent indication of how much their country has been diminished by a visionless leadership.
I beg to disagree with the above analyses.
One, a country’s strategic importance to the US does not necessarily determine the order in which an American president arranges his overseas trips. For instance while no one doubts that Britain enjoys a special relationship with the USA, Britain is not always the first country in Europe to be visited by an American President. When George W Bush made his first European visit in June 2001, he visited Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Poland and Slovenia. None of Europe’s leading powers – Britain, Germany and France- was visited during that period or took offence that they were not visited. This means that it is rather very simplistic to tie a visit, or non-visit by an American president to a country’s strategic importance in the world. The tradition has been that Canada, America’s northern neighbour, gets the first visit, but even this tradition was broken in 2001 when George W Bush chose Mexico as his first overseas trip.
In fact if the democracy and good governance argument were to be the yard sticks for prioritising which countries an American President would visit in Africa, then South Africa (which is also the home of the iconic Nelson Mandela), and Botswana would be in pole positions to receive Obama. Similarly it is doubtful that Egypt could have made the list – if we were to believe the democracy and good governance argument.
Three, just as it is sometimes difficult to fathom out the exact reasons why a particular country is visited and another not visited by an American President, it is also equally difficult to figure out the politics that informs the invitation of some African Heads of State to the White House. For instance, the first African Head of State to visit Obama was President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, not the president of a major African power. It was reported that Obama and the Tanzanian president, "debated some of the African continent's biggest challenges, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur, Somalia and the current political situation in Kenya." Is the Tanzanian President the most strategic person to discuss such issues with an American President?
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