The White House National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the United States “affirms vital work” required to combat terrorism and corruption.
Rice, a former US Ambassador to the United Nations, also said that the visit would promote “sustainable development” during the Buhari administration.
Buhari and his entourage left the country for the US on Sunday. It is the President’s first official visit to America since his inauguration on May 29.
Rice, on her personal Twitter page –@AmbassadorRice – on Monday night, shared her thoughts on the trip. The tweets came after Buhari’s first meeting with his host.
She said the visit demonstrated the country’s commitment to its relationship with Nigeria.
“The Nigeria President’s visit demonstrates the US commitment to deepening our partnership with the new government and the people of Nigeria.
“It affirms vital work we have to do to battle terrorism, combat corruption and promote sustainable development,” she tweeted.
The Twitter pages – @POTUS, BarackObama and@WhiteHouse – built around Obama’s official engagements were rather silent on the meeting between the two leaders.
The platforms monitor and report Obama’s day-to-day activities while posting key updates.
But from the Nigerian side, the visit is, perhaps, the biggest social media event in the life of the new administration so far.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has been tweeting from Washington DC just as his colleague, Garba Shehu, is feeding the cyberspace with texts and photographs.
As Nigerians wait patiently for a bigger story on what transpired between Buhari and the US government, social media subscribers seem to have taken solace in, according to them, the confidence exhumed by the President during his official engagements in the US.
On Tuesday, Adesina said that the President had met with a “delegation” who would bring over $1m-worth economic assistance to the Boko Haram-ravaged North-East.
Adesina had, on Tuesday, tweeted that Obama urged Nigerians to cooperate with Buhari as he sought solutions to the challenges facing the country.
According to him, Obama had expressed the US’ willingness to stand with Nigeria as long as the latter was on course.
“A divided country never succeeds. Turn the diversity of Nigeria to a source of strength. Combine a military action against Boko Haram with social and economic programmes.
“Wherever Nigeria goes, Africa goes. The continent’s destiny is tied to Nigeria’s,” Obama had said.
As of Tuesday evening, some of the tweets posted by Adesina had recorded close to 1,000 retweets each. Cumulatively, his tweets on the visit had garnered several thousands of retweets and favourites, showing Nigerians’ interest in the trip.
Rice’s tweets might have also opened another window for Nigerian and non-Nigerian citizens to make crucial demands on behalf of the country.
Responding to her, Brian Rubaduka, who described himself as a justice seeker, said the US had not shown sufficient support to Nigeria in its war against insurgency. He called on America to match its financial support with the level of damage caused by Boko Haram.
One Nelly Agwu, also a Nigerian tweeter, pleaded with the US government to encourage the Federal Government to launch a probe into how the past security votes were spent.
He said the FG should probe all past presidents and governors with a view to recovering the money they stole through the security vote.
“The government should ask questions. What did past presidents and governors do with their security votes? It should not be selective, everybody that collected the money should be probed,” Agwu told Susan.
Also responding on the platform, one Ade said the parley availed the US an opportunity to review factors that were responsible for the increase in the number of Nigerian emigrants.
Source: punch
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