Marcia Fudge, leader of the US delegation for the inauguration of Tinubu
By Jon Egie
President of the United States, Joseph Biden has announced a 9-man team to attend the inauguration of Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Abuja, Nigeria, next Monday, 29 May as the 16th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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The announcement was made by President Joe Biden yesterday, May 22.
The delegation that will represent him will be led by Marcia Fudge, who is the 18th U.S. Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Her leading the delegation is noteworthy because she is a past Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. She served as a legislator in the U.S. Congress—110th–117th (2007–2021), a period of fourteen years—representing the Democratic Party.
A member of the delegation, Mr Judd Devermont who is the special assistant to US President Joseph Biden and senior director for African Affairs in the National Security Council, has expressed his sentiments on being a part of the Presidential Delegation that will travel to Nigeria in the coming days.
“I am honoured” he tweeted on Monday evening, after the president made the announcement.
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David Greene, Chargé d’ Affaires, US Embassy in Nigeria representing the US Department of State’s foreign mission will be part of the delegation. The US Embassy in Nigeria was established in 1960.
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.
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US Marine Corps General Michael Langley is the sixth commanding general of the combatant command, US Africa Command, commonly referred to as AFRICOM. He started this position last August. He has the responsibility for all U.S. military operations in Africa and in the maritime waters that surround the continent. Since starting his tenure, he has focused his attention on “face-to-face” engagement,” said AFRICOM’s public affairs. They emphasize that, “We will support African-led efforts to work toward 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, and invest in local and international peacebuilding and peacekeeping to prevent new conflicts from emerging.”
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For Enoh Ebong, Director, US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), this will not be her first visit to Nigeria. She was there in October 2022 when she was promoting Mr Biden’s new approach—the US Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa—and the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), and Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan.
The US Department of State’s Africa Bureau’s Assistant Secretary of State, Mary Phee, will also join the delegation.
Credit: Vanguard
