Lagos — United States Secretary of State and former First Lady, Hillary Clinton is set for a visit to Nigeria from August 10 to 12.
Sources said a letter from the US State Department notifying the Nigerian government of Hillary's visit has been received at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The source further confirmed that the US ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Rene'e Sanders and Nigeria's Foreign Affairs minister, Ojo Maduekwe met yesterday in Abuja to kick off arrangement for the visit.
During the visit, Hillary is expected to hold discussion with President Umaru Yar'Adua on a number of issues affecting both countries.
Because Nigeria is key to the US as it continues to look beyond the strife-torn Middle-East for its energy needs, sources said the Niger Delta crisis is expected to top the agenda of Hillary's meeting with Yar'Adua.
US's crude oil import from Nigeria is on the upswing with Nigeria recording a 16.2 per cent rise in its crude export to the U.S. last year.
"The US government is keen about a speedy resolution of the Niger Delta crisis because Nigeria is a key source of crude oil for the US. This is why it is top of the agenda," a foreign ministry source told THISDAY last night.
Two other issues likely to dominate discussion during Hillary's meeting with Yar'Adua are corruption and electoral reforms in the country.
Hillary, the 67th United States Secretary of State, was a Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. That election marked the first time an American First Lady had run for public office; Clinton was also the first female senator to represent New York
In the Senate, she initially supported the George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution.
She subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the war in Iraq, and opposed it on most domestic issues. She was re-elected to the Senate by a wide margin in 2006.
As the wife of Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, she was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
Her time as First Lady drew a polarised response from the American public. She became the only First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater controversy in 1996.
She was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or any of the several other investigations during her husband's administration.
The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion following the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
She was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2008 election. In the nomination race, Clinton won more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history, but she narrowly lost to Barack Obama.
As Obama's Secretary of State, Clinton is the first former First Lady to serve in a president's cabinet.
A native of Illinois, Hillary first attracted national attention in 1969 for her remarks as the first student to deliver the commencement address at Wellesley College.
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If the US Secretary of States is belatedly coming to Nigeria to shore up the YarAduas Government of the North that is flaming out, already, it would be a terrible mistake for the US interest. In fact, it could eventually rupture whatever is left of the US-Nigeria friendly bilateral relations. Nigeria is not a Jihadist state that needs US tender loving care that President Obama seems to want to "please the Islamic world with his double-speak. Rather, Nigeria is a secular state that guards its non-aligned status, jealously 70% of the worlds Anglicans, should count for something if we want to go that religious route. In fact, Mrs. Clintons up-coming visit should be seen by Nigerians from the South as Americas last chance to decide on whose side its future interests in Nigeria lies. On the side of the irresponsible feudal jihadists to the North, that the previous US administration wrongly thought would whip some sense into the recalcitrant, mostly Christians south of River Niger, and the Deltans, in particular, that CNN & BBC dubbed criminals. It is unconscionable enough that the then US Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Negroponte, saw thru its crystal ball, or whatever oracle he consulted to divine that Nigeria would disintegrate if power do not go back to the same Northern cabal that miss-ruled Nigeria, ruinously, for 42 of its 49 years as a republic. Unfortunately, the gullible Nigerians, like mugus, that believe everything America says, fell for that fraud of the Century. Now, we all know better that the only thing, people, region, that could break Nigerias back are the same that have been so marginalized, despised, caricatured, and exploited almost to the point of genocide and extinction - the Deltans, which happens to be the breadbasket of Nigeria and one of the critical watering-holes of the US economy. Now, the line is been drawn in the sand are you, America, with the Nigerian common man or is it business as usual, a la, Plantation owners, their Overseers and the field Slaves? Nigeria is longer anybodys lackey, like Ghana that depends of the crumbs that fall off the Masters table of greed and opulence. We are an independent nation that demands respect as business partners. As for Nigerias Hausa-Fulani cabals to our North, the 1999 Nigerian Constitution is not the Peoples constitution because it was designed by, and written for the interests of the Northern military juntas and their politicians that have miss-ruled Nigeria for so long. Therefore, the bottom-line for Nigerias continuous existence as one entity is as a simple as P.R.O.N.A.C.O., now or nothing. Let every region develop according to its own resources. Enough of this Monkey dey chop, Baboon dey waka.