21 August 2000
Lagos, Nigeria — Abuja, Nigeria's capital, is wearing a new look ahead of this weekend's visit by US President Bill Clinton.
The Nigerian government is also leaving nothing to chance, backing the heavy American security detail being laid out for the important visitor.
Four of the country's airports are receiving a face-lift for the visit, with some 1.4 billion-naira aside to improve landing facilities.
Nigerians are looking forward to the visit, the second in 22 years by a sitting American president after the 1978 trip to the country by former President Jimmy Carter.
A massive cleaning of public places is going on in Abuja, while the 45-km road between the airport and the city gate is being decorated with flowers.
Expectation is very high that the trip by Clinton, who avoided Nigeria in his first African trip two years ago, would attract immense economic benefits to Africa's most populous nation.
Information and national orientation Minister Jerry Gana has embarked on a swing across the country to canvas support for the visit through the media.
At the weekend, he visited various media organisations in Lagos and nearby Ogun state to seek their support and exchange ideas with them "on how to achieve the desired results" from the visit.
At Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, and home of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the minister described the national controversy over the influx of American personnel into Abuja as a "non-issue."
Nigerian newspapers have been awash with reports that 5,000 American security personnel have landed in Abuja ahead of the visit, leading to condemnations from critics who said it was a slight on the country's sovereignty.
But Gana said the heavy American security presence was normal.
"I am not sure that they are up to 5,000, but it is normal for the president of the US when he is travelling to somewhere, to provide adequate security in addition to the security that is provided within the country that he is visiting. So this is not unique to Nigeria," he added.
US officials have denied that 5,000 security personnel had been deployed to the Nigerian capital.
Although indications are that Clinton will restrict his visit to Abuja, and possibly a village within the Federal Captital Territory, landing facilities at the Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt airports are being upgraded.
Clinton and his estimated 1,000-strong delegation, including industrialists, had been scheduled to visit the northern city of Maiduguri and Port Harcourt in the oil-rich Niger-Delta, but the programmes outside Abuja have been expunged from the itinerary.
Meanwhile, Nigerians are fully mobilised for the visit, going by callers to phone-in programmes on radio and television, as well as those participating in newspaper opinion polls.
According to the latest of such polls, published by the Lagos-based Post Express Monday, some 1,205 of the 1,513 respondents, or 79.6 percent, said the visit would be of huge benefits to Nigeria.
Another 229 respondents (19.7 percent) expressed pessimism about the visit, while nine respondents (0.59 percent) had no opinion.
The expected benefits include debt relief and increased American investments in Nigeria, with the news that the visiting business people would give concrete economic support and boost Nigeria's fledgling democracy.
Those opposed to the visit, however, said the huge financial resources being spent on the visit could have been better channelled to shore up the nation's dilapidated infrastructure.
Nigeria is one of America's largest trading partners in Africa, with the US buying up to 40 percent of the country's total oil imports estimated at some 1.8 billion barrels per day.
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