With a planned major shift in its foreign policy towards Africa, particularly the Sub-Saharan region, the United States government will scale up its involvement significantly in Nigeria ahead of the 2023 general elections, Pointblanknews.com authoritatively gathered.
The scale up of relations, it was gathered is in part, to redirect the US foreign policy towards Africa which had been battered considerably during the immediate past government of President Donald Trump.
This cold relationship, a highly placed source within the diplomatic circles told Pointblanknews.com, has been responsible for the worsening security situation within the Sub-Saharan region where Nigeria falls into and that has caught the attention of President Joe Biden.
Also, the source revealed that the US government had become increasingly weary about the Buhari-led administration’s sincerity for a smooth transition of power in 2023.
Furthermore, the US administration promises to apply more pressure on the Buhari government more than it did to President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in the run-up to the 2019 general election which Buhari was believed to have won.
“President Biden and indeed the US state department which handles foreign relations policies of the government is worried that the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari may not be entirely transparent in the build-up to and after the general elections.
“This is more worrisome especially with President’s refusal to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which has really cast a cloud of doubt within the diplomatic circles.
“President Biden is poised to apply the same pressure, if not more on the Buhari government than what was used on the government of President Goodluck Jonathan in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.
“President Biden, then Vice President under Barack Obama, was at the front seat of the happenings and he intends to deploy and even intensify the measures ahead of the general elections” the source revealed.
President Muhammadu Buhari has increasingly come under public criticism over his government’s human rights record, poor handling of security, economic issues and the heightened sense of injustice in the country.
Pointblanknews.com recalls that that in early November, United States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited Nigeria and other African countries in a bid to revitalise warmer relationships with African partners.
The visit, according to Blinken, was to advance U.S.-Africa collaboration on shared global priorities, build back a more inclusive global economy, combat climate crisis, revitalizing democracies, advance peace and security.