President Goodluck Jonathan Leaves Patience Jonathan In Nigeria
The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, was not included to the 73-man delegation, headed by her husband, President Goodluck Jonathan, which departs to the US capital, Washington DC, on August 3, 2014, Sunday, for a crucial summit.
The traditionally-large Nigerian delegation would participate in a three-day-long US-Africa Leaders Summit, August 4-6, 2014, hosted by the US president, Barack Hussein Obama.
Observers and analysts, who commented to SaharaReporters on the decision to leave Patience Jonathan at home, gave the following possible reasons:
1) possibility of uncomfortable encounters with journalists, protesters and angry citizens;
2) fear of humiliation over First Lady’s past behaviour related to the kidnap of over 200 schoolgirls from GGSS Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014. This includes her controversial weeping in public, alleged involvement in the arrest of a lead campaigner of #BringBackOurGirls movement Mrs Naomi Nyadar, among them;
3) if Mama Peace travelled to Washington DC, she would have met her US counterpart, Michelle Obama.
Unlike Dame Patience, America’s First Lady behaved in a more gallant and elegant way in respect of the missing Chibok girls. Therefore, she might not be favourably disposed to interacting with Mrs Jonathan.
An undisclosed source of SaharaReporters revealed that Goodluck Jonathan was exploring an opportunity for face-to-face meeting with his US counterpart. However, no confirmation of this arrangement is available so far, which may likely mean that the American side is not interested in it.
President Jonathan showed no interest in attending a “solidarity rally” that is being organised by “The Diaspora Nigerians in America group”. The praise singers intended to gather in front of the Nigerian Embassy on August 5, 2014, Tuesday.
The Nigerian delegation will include governors Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Isah Yuguda (Bauchi), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), ministers of Petroleum Resources, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Youth Culture and Tourism.
The business elites will be represented by Femi Otedola, Wale Tinubu, Kola Adeshina and many others.
The upcoming summit became possible after last summer’s African tour of President Barack Obama. government, will build on the President’s trip to Africa in the summer of 2013. He visited Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, but shunned Nigeria.
The summit will become the largest event any US President has held with African heads of state and government in history. Its topic is "Investing in the Next Generation".
By this the USA want to emphasise on their commitment to Africa’s security, its democratic development, and its people.
Source: Legit.ng
