Nigeria’s Buhari set to meet Trump in Washington
Meeting comes at a time when both the United States and China are looking to strengthen financial relations with Africa.
Nigeria‘s President Muhammadu Buhari is set to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, to discuss economic and military ties.
The meeting on Monday will mark the second time Buhari sits down with a US president in the three years he has been in power – the first being with Barack Obama in 2015.
Buhari, who came into office promising to defeat Boko Haram has just a year left of his first term. But the armed group still poses a significant threat to Nigeria, as attacks in the northeast of the country continue to take place.
Reporting from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said Buhari hopes to use his visit to the White House to acquire military hardware to fight Boko Haram.
“In the heart of the Nigerian president will be his three-pronged agenda to secure Nigeria, to revive the economy and to fight corruption,” Femi Adesina, the media adviser to Nigeria’s president, told Al Jazeera.
But with the invitation coming from the White House, some believe the meeting could focus more on what the Americans want.
“Inviting the Nigerian president is important to see how Nigeria can be co-opted to be part of the Western geopolitical interests,” economist Basil Odilim Enwegbara said.
The talks take place at a time when both the US and China are looking to strengthen financial relations with Africa.
Buhari is the first leader from sub-Saharan Africa to visit the White House since Trump took office more than a year ago.