June 4, 2012

The seventh meeting of the U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission commenced June 4 at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), drawing senior U.S. and Nigerian officials to consider future steps in a deepening relationship between the United States and Africa’s most populous nation.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and Nigerian Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru delivered opening remarks. The commission organized four working groups on the meeting’s main topics: governance, transparency and integrity; energy and investment; agriculture and food security; and regional security cooperation.

The Institute venue, says David Smock, senior vice president of USIP’s Centers of Innovation and a longtime Africa specialist, "in part reflects the long involvement that USIP has had with Nigeria." USIP is moderating all the sessions of the two-day meeting. Over the last 10 years, USIP has worked with local partners in Nigeria to try to promote peace between Christians and Muslims in places like Plateau State and Kaduna State. In addition, the Institute has promoted training in conflict resolution in the conflict-prone Niger Delta, as well as helped with the reintegration of rebels in the Delta following a government amnesty. USIP has participated in the training of Nigerian peacekeepers prior to their deployment in United Nations and African Union peacekeeping missions. USIP has also commissioned a series of policy papers on critical issues related to peacebuilding in Nigeria.

"We have a long and deep engagement in Nigeria going back more than a decade," noted George Moose, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs and vice chairman of USIP’s Board of Directors, in his welcome to participants from both nations.

The State Department’s Burns called the gathering "a sign of our wide-ranging ambitions" for the relationship, adding, "Nigeria is one of the most strategically important nations in sub-Saharan Africa."

Nigeria, Burns noted, is the top U.S. trade partner in sub-Saharan Africa, home to more Muslims than any other country in the region, a leading provider of peacekeeping forces and Africa’s no. 1 oil producer. Nigeria is also contending with problems characteristic of other parts of Africa, such as a bulging youth population needing jobs and inter-regional tensions. "Nigeria’s successes can be Africa’s as well," he said. "Nigeria can and should be among [the world’s rising nations]."

Burns said the United States will explore a potential partnership with Nigeria’s army to strengthen its civilian affairs capabilities; help Nigeria develop "a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy’: and support Nigeria’s capacity to coordinate security responses through an intelligence fusion center.

Foreign Minister Ashiru called his country’s relationship with the United States "deep-rooted and cross-cutting" and credited the Binational Commission with a "high level" of accomplishments in such areas as foreign investment and agriculture cooperation.

Ashiru also cited U.S. assistance to Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission in elections last year and appealed for further support ahead of 2015 elections. He reiterated Nigerian pledges "to tackle corruption head-on," which he described as a cause of the country’s past slow growth and underdevelopment. He also termed as a "serious challenge" the rise of Boko Haram, a Nigeria-based extremist Islamic sect responsible for numerous terrorist attacks. Ashiru welcomed continued U.S. support for countering extremism by the countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

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