The U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has described the situation in Nigeria as heartbreaking. Mrs. Clinton gave this description yesterday while speaking at the Corporate Council on Africa's Seventh Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Washington.
Mrs. Clinton, who acknowledged efforts by members of civil society in Nigeria for electoral reforms and an end to corruption, attributed the situation to the mismanagement of revenue.
"There is no doubt that when one looks at Nigeria, it is such a heartbreaking scene we see. The number of people living in Nigeria is going up. The number of people facing food security and health challenges are going up... because the revenues have not been well managed," she said.
Mrs. Clinton said that she had met with leaders in Nigeria and emphasised U.S.' "commitment to partnering with Nigeria in areas such as electoral reform, anti-corruption activities, better stewardship of oil revenues, and efforts to build a more diversified economy, as well as the resolution of the conflict in the Niger Delta."
According to Mrs. Clinton, the Obama Administration has strategies to help spur economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa and create conditions that will improve the lives of the African people.
"We are eager to move beyond stereotypes that paint Africa as a land of poverty, disease, conflict, and not much else.
And we will continue to lay a strong foundation for a new kind of engagement with Africa, one that is built on shared responsibility and shared opportunity, and on partnerships that produce measurable, lasting results," she said.
"From our perspective, for too long, Africa has been20viewed as a charity case instead of a dynamic continent capable of becoming a global economic engine of the 21st century. So it is time to change the narrative."
To this end, the secretary of state said the U.S. will help to create the right conditions for opportunities to be seized by focusing of five key areas: trade; development; energy security; more public-private partnership; and good governance, transparency and accountability, ending corruption, and adherence to the rule of law.
"We will focus on country-led plans and market-based investments in areas like food security, infrastructure, and women. We will focus on metrics and accountability, on nations eager to attack corruption and promote good governance," she said.
Mrs. Clinton however warned that the success of the Obama administration's ‘big agenda' and ‘very positive vision' for Africa is dependent on the continent's leaders.
"We have to acknowledge that none of this can happen without responsible African leadership, without good government and transparency and accountability, without acceptable rule of law, without environmental stewardship and the effective management of resources, without respect for human rights, without an end to corruption as a cancer that eats away at the entrepreneurial spirits and hopes of millions of people," she said.
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