Yusuph Olaniyonu
23 November 2008
Lagos — United States of America's President-elect, Senator Barrack Obama last Thursday called President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua on phone and had extensive discussion on a wide range of issues.
Sources close to Aso Rock told THISDAY that the phone conversation was initiated by the US President-elect who expressed appreciation for the congratulatory message the Nigerian President sent him shortly after his election on November 5.
Obama is said to have told Yar'Adua that his administration intends to maintain the strong relationship US has with Africa and Nigeria in particular.
He also discussed several issues with Yar'Adua bordering on the economy, social and political areas. Several issues on Afro-US relations and common areas of co-operation between Nigeria and the United States were also discussed by the two leaders.
Sources noted that apart from the general discussions, the US President-elect expressed his desire to host Yar'Adua in Washington after his inauguration.
Yar'Adua while congratulating Obama shortly after the US Presidential election was concluded stated that: "On this epic day in the political history of the United States of America, at this defining moment in the evolutionary history of the democratic world, the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria felicitate with you on your momentous victory at the presidential election.
"While wishing you and your team a successful transition, I look forward to even more robust bilateral relations between Nigeria and the United States of America, and more productive partnership between Africa and the United States of America in the quest for a more stable, secure, just and equitable world."
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The African youths must orgaize and stop hanging on to tribalism. Tribalism has been used by coloniasts and neocloniasts as an effective vehicle to disorgaize and exploit Africans resources.
African ruling elites have become the willing collaborators in undermining their fellow Africans using the same tool, tribalism. They have become beggars, begging for handouts obtained from the very resources they are unable to control or manage. SHAME!
The African youths must orgaize and stop hanging on to tribalism. Tribalism has been used by colonialists and neocolonialists as an effective vehicle to disorgaize and exploit Africans resources.
African ruling elites have become the willing collaborators in undermining their fellow Africans using the same tool, tribalism. They have become beggars, begging for handouts obtained from the very resources they are unable to control or manage. SHAME!
Obama cant do anything for africa or any other country soon he will have his hands full in america.That was political telephonics part of the record so that he can say I keep in touch with african leaders
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As much as we appreciate the President-Elect’s courtesy phone call to the current Nigerian President, Mr. Obama should be made aware, however, that Mr. Yaradua is not a democrat he pretends to be. His administration’s latest tendencies of using various arm of govt to harass reform-minded, former EFCC Chairman, in the person of Mr. Ribadu, is sending bad signals to any future reform-minded Nigerian that this is a fate that awaits any that dares to challenge the status quo’s unbridled govt officials’ corruption with impunity while the public lives in penury. A man that would cancel his predecessor's attempt to build health centers in every local govt areas of the federation to take care of our poor, while Mr. Yaradua jets abroad for his medical treatments at public expense, seems callous to me. And when the public complains, our so-called “Servant Leader” uses the Nigerian Secret Service to intimidate members of the Press that dared to publish public opinion criticizing his visionless administration. His penchant to solicit oath-taking of members of his administration so as to compel their silence & remain loyal to his dictatorship - is not what we expect a transparent democratic principle to be. If this is democracy, then we don’t want it –the military juntas were not as callous as this civilian one is. The current events in the country may lead to a people’s revolution that we will expect foreigners to stay out of. May God bless us all.