Visit Nigeria before end of your tenure, Reps tell Obama

Nigeria’s  House of Representatives, on Tuesday, called on the United States President Barrack Obama to visit Nigeria before the expiration of his tenure in office.

The House also solicited for collaboration between Nigeria’s National Assembly and United States Congress for mutual benefits for both countries.

Speaking in Abuja, on Tuesday, during the  visit of a delegation from House of Democracy Partnership (HDP), United States House of Representatives to National Assembly, the Chairman House Ad hoc committee on Nigeria-United States of America Relations, Hon. Johnson Agbonayinma said that Nigeria being the most populous and biggest economy in the black continent deserved the visit of President Obama before his tenure ended.

According to him, “for the fact that Nigeria is the most populous and biggest economy in Africa, I make bold to request for the visit of President Barrack Obama to our great nation, Nigeria, before the expiration of his tenure in office

“As an African he should emulate former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton who at various times visited Nigeria to further strengthen the bilateral relations of the two great countries.”

While urging  the US Congress to complement the existing parliamentary development programmes between the two countries particularly those funded by USAID, Hon Agbonayinma said, “the visit is timely to both teams in strengthening future and further bilateral parliamentary ties for our great democracies.”

“The US of America has been a close ally of Nigeria. Our ties have been strengthened in areas of economy, public health, peace and security, education democracy and the rule of law,he stated.

On the coming US Presidential election, Hon. Agbonayinma decried the trend of campaign of hatred being promoted by the Candidates of the Democrat and Republican,saying that, “looking at the politics that is going on in America today and what is happening in the election that is going on in America, it seems they borrowed it from Nigeria. It is my first time to see presidential candidates castigating instead of dealing with issues”.

On his part, the Leader of the delegation, Mr Scott Hublin, said that HDP was committed to providing the technical assistance to the House of Representatives on budgetary issues, committee operations and constituency services.

Other areas are ethics, information services, specialized specialization and oversight.

HDP was established by the United States House of Representative with the mission to strengthen democratic institutions by collaborating with parliaments in developing democracies.

“Central to the work of HDP was peer-to-peer cooperation to build technical expertise in partner legislature that will enhance accountability, transparency, legislative independence, access to information and government oversight,’’ Hublin added.