Abuja — The chartered North American Airlines plane that delivered American delegates to Abuja, Nigeria on Sunday to attend the 7th Leon H. Sullivan Summit evoked the meeting's theme of "Partnership for Success." The flight was the inaugural voyage of the airline's non-stop service between the U.S. and west Africa.
Welcomed by Sullivan Foundation CEO Hope Sullivan Masters, whose father, the late Rev. Leon H. Sullivan, began the Summit tradition, delegates also heard Tom Fury, the Charge d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, make the case that Nigeria is economically and politically important and a partner "in the international war on terrorism."
Fury pointed out that Nigeria provides 11 percent of all U.S. oil imports – a figure that is expected to rise to 20 percent over the next few years. The envoy noted Nigeria's key role of peace broker throughout Africa, most recently in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Commending the country's efforts to fight corruption, Fury said the United States "supports Nigeria by working with its government to shape its economic development strategy." He said numerous U.S. official agencies, among them the State Department, USAID, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Treasury and Agricultural Departments all have representatives working "to support Nigeria's economic dream team" – a group that includes the country's minister of foreign affairs and former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has been credited for her effectiveness in bringing transparency to Nigeria's national accounts. Nigeria is also a focus country for the U.S. Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
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Before it ends, the five-day Summit is expected to be visited by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, and the OPEC chairman, Dr. Edmund Dankuru. Carlton Masters, President and CEO of Goodworks International, a company founded by former UN Ambassador and mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young, said the Summit "is an important step towards investing and contributing to the future of Africa."
Later at a reception at the U.S. Ambassador's residence, Ambassador Young praised delegates for supporting, with their presence, the economic development of Africa, but he said that the American attendees "get more out of the Summit than we bring in to it." He applauded Africa's role in building America, saying that "now it is our time to start bringing back to Mother Africa."
The atmosphere was festive at Abuja's Azikiwe Airport for the opening ceremonies, which incorporated dazzling traditional performances – singing, chanting, acrobatic dancing, cart-wheeling to the pulsating sounds of "gangan" or talking drums and masked characters performing gravity-defying feats while on elongated stick legs. Traditional leaders were on hand to greet delegates, who each received necklaces and were taught to say welcome in the languages, Ibo, Yoruba and Hausa.
