US Ambassador to Nigeria Mary Leonard
U.S to Nigeria: ‘Our relations will not be like Afghanistan’
United States Government has stated its relations with Nigeria will not be like the one it has with Afghanistan, just as it promised to assist the country in identifying sponsors of terrorism and terror suspects.
US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Leonard, who disclosed this, Monday during a meeting with journalists in Abuja, said the country is constantly in talks with the Nigerian government with a view to identifying terror suspects and their sponsors.
“That is something (identifying sponsors of terrorism) we are very eager to partner Nigeria on. I have had at least three conversations in the last two months on this subject. I won’t like to go into details.”
On comparisons with Afghanistan, the U.S envoy said Nigeria and the Gulf nation are not similar, as they are of ‘different construct.’
“I hear people making the analogy with Afghanistan a lot, it does not match up.
“When you listen to what President Biden said on how troops went to Afghanistan in the first place, it was because they were in a horrible tragedy, over 3,000 Americans were killed.
“That is a different construct. The sovereign nations who have had strong bilateral relations. I don’t actually think the two match up,” said the envoy.
The U.S recently sold twelve A -29 Super Tucano fighter jets to Nigeria in its fight against insurgency, after years of an arms embargo slammed on the country by the Barrack Obama administration over allegations of human rights violations committed by the Nigerian military.
