Nigerian Govt will defeat Boko Haram – Greenfield

Worldstage-1United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ms Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in this interaction with journalists in Abuja after the 3rd Session of the Nigeria-US Bi-national Commission Meeting, says with adequate support from the US Government, Nigeria will defeat the Boko Haram extremist sect. She also expresses hope that the 2015 general elections in Nigeria would be free, fair and transparent as the US supports Nigeria in the programmes to achieve peaceful electoral reform process. She says further that the war against corruption in Nigeria could be won when the laws are made tougher on corrupt people. Excerpts:
In the last few weeks there seems an increase in the spate of attacks as the Boko Haram has become more daring and scaring. What do you think Nigeria can do differently to tackle this menace?

Let me start by extending my condolences to the people of Nigeria for the loss of lives in the Boko Haram attacks.
Extremism is a problem not just in Nigeria, it is something that we are facing in the United States, we have our own terrorist attacks and what we learned is that terrorism everywhere affects everyone. So these attacks on Nigeria are affecting all of us. We have been working closely with the government of Nigeria to help the government address the insurgency of Boko Haram.
I was here in December with a team of folks some of them are professionals in counter insurgency. We discussed with the government about how to address the issues of counter insurgency and one of the messages we have given the government is that this is something that requires a multifaceted approach, it is not just a security issue, it requires getting into the communities and knowing the communities and addressing the communities needs and the government is working in that direction. But bringing this to an end is a tough job and we are supporting the government to find a solution to Boko Haram.

You said that US and UK committed 31 million dollars into the 2011 elections in Nigeria. How do you intend to support the INEC to conduct the 2015 general election? Do you have a budget on that?

In 2011 between the US and UK we put about 31 million dollars to support the elections. We are looking at amount that will be similar to that over the next five years not just election in 2015. It is also about the work that is required to take place after the election. So between now and over three years,we have committed significant resources to assisting the INEC to prepare for Nigeria to  have a peaceful, free and fair elections in 2015 and beyond 2015, because it is a huge undertaking to carry out successful elections here in this country. INEC is committed to that and we are committed to supporting them, including supporting the civil society organization that are supporting INEC.

You had advised the Nigerian government to adopt a multifaceted approach to the Boko Haram crisis in the north. We have the NDDC which is working toward ameliorating the standard of living of the Niger Delta region. Do you suggest a similar commission for people in the north?

I think that we can learn from the Niger Delta Commission and what was done to arrest the violence in the Niger delta, so I don’t know if the exact same approach will work for the north but I think some of the approaches that were taken in the Niger delta could work as well.

Would you consider it a failure on the US government if Nigeria does not defeat Boko Haram?

I don’t think is a failure of the US government if Nigeria does not defeat Boko Haram, I think the Nigerian government will defeat Boko Haram. We are giving the government tremendous amount of support and advice and it is our hope and for the people of Nigeria that Boko Haram is defeated. Many people were killed in the north this week and the numbers were in their thousands. That cannot be allowed to continue. The government has a responsibility to provide security for those people and we are working with the government to assist them in doing that.

Why has the US not deploy the use of drones to help Nigeria to tackle this insurgency?

We are working closely with Nigeria and any time such military actions are taken, they are taken in coordination with the Nigerian government at the request of the government that we are working with. If there is such a plan to use the drone it is not something we will be discussing in public.  But we are working closely with the Nigerian government to help them address this issue in ways that are appropriate in Nigeria.

You promised to help Nigeria fight corruption in the oil sector, how are you doing that?
We have committed at the request of the government of Nigeria to assist them in dealing with the issue of oil theft and bunkering. We had a team in Nigeria in December that addresses the issue; we have done a report which we look forward to sharing with the government of Nigeria.

How can you assist the people on their own to fight corruption without waiting for the government?

That was part of the extensive discussion we had with the Nigerian government, civil society organizations and private companies participated in those discussions and recommendation. We talked about people selling their vote. Corruption does not just involve government officials, it involves citizens as well and it is important that citizens take a stand on issues related to corruption, so that will be my advice to private Nigerians. But there are civil society organizations that are working with the populations to deal with the issues of corruption, to build confidence in the government and confidence in their abilities to bring people who are involved in corruption to justice.

In China, you could be killed if you are convicted of corruption, in the US the corruption there is quite low, but in Nigeria it is a different story. Do you think Nigerian laws on corruption are weak?

I think your laws could be tougher in dealing with corruption, there has to be a high level of commitment to deal with issues of corruption and people have to demand that they want a corruption- free society. I don’t recommend that people be killed for corruption, I don’t also agree that there is no corruption in the US, its low because we hold people accountable. There are people in jail in the US for committing corrupt acts. I am hopeful that will become the case here in Nigeria.

You said the US will sustain pressure on Nigeria to reverse the anti- gay law. Polygamy is part of the culture in Nigeria which is not allowed in the US. Between polygamy and same sex marriage, which do you think infringes on the right of people?

I think any law that infringes on people’s rights to association, that infringes on their rights to assemble, any law that justifies vigilantism, any law that encourages violence against others, is a violation of human right. My government has a very strong view on human rights; we support human rights for all people. In our view the anti gay law will jeopardize the human right of the gay population and we will continue to have dialogue with the government and people of Nigeria on this issue.

What does the US benefit from its relationship with Nigeria?

Our relationship with Nigeria multifaceted in two ways; Nigeria is the fifth largest exporter of oil and this is something the global community depends upon Nigeria is the second largest economy, and moving close to being the first largest economy in the African continent, so there business are opportunities for American companies and it is in our interest for American companies  to successfully invest in this country and we have  a number of companies that are investing here in Nigeria.
We have 31,000 Americans in Nigeria; we have 1.5 million Nigerians in America. The relationship is a good one and that is why we want to see Nigeria succeed, we want to see Nigeria have successful elections, those elections being successful will not just be for the benefit of Nigerian but the benefit of the region and globally as Nigeria increases its global role in the multilateral organizations and elsewhere in the world.

What conclusions do you draw from the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa?

The AU Summit was an opportunity  to meet with Africa leaders on a variety of issues on the continent, we had number of meetings discussing the situation in South Sudan, giving us opportunity to get views from leaders across the continent. We had special side meeting on the situation in CAR.  I had meetings individually with various government leaders including the   newly elected president of Madagascar; they just had a successful election after being under five years of military rule.  So Being in Addis was an opportunity of doing a lot in a week.