A nine-person delegation led by US President Joe Biden will attend Bola Tinubu’s inauguration as president of Nigeria on May 29 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Judd Devermont posted a tweet saying, “I am honoured,” on Monday night. Mr. Devermont, senior director for African Affairs in the National Security Council and special assistant to US President Joseph Biden, revealed his feelings about being a part of the presidential delegation that will visit Nigeria in the coming days.
On May 22, Vice President Biden announced a nine-person presidential delegation, led by Marcia Fudge, the 18th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to represent him and America “to the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Attend the Inauguration of His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu” on May 29, 2023, in Abuja, Nigeria.
From the US Department of State’s foreign mission, the US Embassy in Nigeria, David Greene, Chargé d’Affaires, will, as the top diplomat of an embassy that was established in the host country in 1960, justifiably be a part of the delegation. Mr Biden pledged to accelerate high-level visits by senior administration officials to Africa at the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit he convened last December.
Another nominee is Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Congresswoman whose constituency is the 37th District in the State of California. She is also a member of Mr Biden’s Democratic Party.
Appointed on 28 December 2021, is an attorney who Mr Biden appointed, in her current position, to “lead the [US] federal government’s efforts to assist American businesses entering or expanding into international markets, enforce fair trade policies, promote travel and tourism to the United States and U.S. products and services overseas, provide in-depth trade analyses, develop strategies that will shape the future of international trade, and engage in commercial diplomacy across the globe.” This is why Marisa Lago, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, US Department of Commerce is a laudable pick for Mr Biden.
General Michael Langley of the US Marine Corps is the sixth commanding general of the US Africa Command, also known as AFRICOM. He assumed this role in August of last year. He is in charge of all military actions carried out by the United States in Africa and the surrounding seas. Since beginning his position, he has prioritised “face-to-face” contact, according to AFRICOM’s public affairs.
“We will support African-led efforts to work towards political solutions to costly conflicts, increasing terrorist activity, and humanitarian crises, such as those in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, and the Sahel,” they emphasize, adding that they will also “invest in local and international peacebuilding and peacekeeping to prevent new conflicts from emerging.”
Enoh Ebong, Director of the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), has travelled to Nigeria before. She was present when Mr. Biden’s new strategy—the US Strategy Towards Sub-Saharan Africa—as well as the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) and Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan were being promoted in October 2022.
The trip will also include Assistant Secretary of State Mary Phee from the US Department of State’s Africa Bureau.
Monde Muyangwa, who has extensive knowledge of US-African relations and was chosen by Vice President Biden to serve as the assistant administrator for the Bureau for Africa at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), will be a valuable addition to the group.
“The U.S. is the largest foreign investor in Nigeria, with U.S. foreign direct investment concentrated largely in the petroleum/mining and wholesale trade sectors. At $2.2 billion in 2017, Nigeria is the second largest U.S. export destination in Sub-Saharan Africa,” according to the State Department.
