President Muhammadu Buhari will only be meeting the U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson briefly when he visits Nigeria on Monday, March 12, 2018.
The U.S. diplomat will now spend just a few hours in Nigeria on Monday evening rather than the overnight visit originally planned.
“Due to demands in the Secretary’s schedule, he is returning to the U.S. one day early after concluding official meetings in Chad and Nigeria,” Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein told reporters.
Tillerson will cut short his first diplomatic trip to Africa on Monday to return to deal with urgent work in Washington.
Ill health
Tillerson’s trip to Africa which is supposed to last a week and end on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 has been reportedly plagued by ill health.
The 65-years-old diplomat was reported to have cancelled some events in Kenya on Saturday, March 10, 2018, saying he was feeling unwell.
Tillerson left Kenya and travelled to Chad on Monday morning, March 12, 2018 to meet President Idriss Deby.
He will be discussing counter terrorism as well as support of the US government to the battle against the al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated groups in the Sahel region.
Tillerson’s week-long, five-country tour coincided with several urgent foreign policy developments, including Thursday’s announcement that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Tillerson announced a $533million aid for the African countries from the US government while speaking at George Mason University in Virginia shortly before departing the US for Africa.
In that vein, the Federal Government of Nigeria and Chad will get over $128million in aid.
The over $128million in aid for Nigeria and Chad region is part of the $533 million in humanitarian assistance from the United States of America for Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan, as well as countries in the Chad region.
Source: Pulse.ng
