US to trace missing assets, boost military

Better ties with Nigeria come at a time of cooling relations with South Africa

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s top two political parties have each nominated a woman for president in 2016, a historic first signaling acceptance of female leadership and starting a campaign highlighted so far by clashing views on ties with China.

The ruling Nationalist Party picked as its candidate Hung Hsiuchu, the current deputy legislative speaker. Hung, who supports friendly relations with China, will run against Tsai Ing-wen, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party chairwoman who is more cautious about relations with Beijing.

THE US will offer to help Nigeria’s new leader track down billions of dollars in stolen assets and increase US military assistance to fight Islamic militants, US officials said, as Washington seeks to “reset” ties with Africa’s biggest economy.

Next week’s visit to Washington by president Muhammadu Buhari is viewed by the US administration as a chance to set the seal on improving ties since he won a March election hailed as Nigeria’s first democratic power transition in decades.

US co-operation with Buhari’s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, had virtually ground to a halt over issues including his refusal to investigate corruption and human rights abuses by the Nigerian military.

“President Barack Obama has long seen Nigeria as arguably the most important strategic country in sub-Saharan Africa,” US deputy secretary of state Tony Blinken said. “The question is: would there be an opportunity to deepen our engagement and that opportunity is now.”

The improving ties with Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, come as US relations have cooled with two other traditional Africa powers – Egypt and South Africa.

US officials have said they are willing to send military trainers to help Nigeria counter a six-year-old northern insurgency by the Boko Haram Islamist movement.

Since Buhari’s election, Washington has committed $5 million (R62m) in new support for a multi-national task force set up to fight the group. This is in addition to at least $34m (R418m)it is providing to Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger for equipment and logistics.

Buhari’s move on July 13 to fire military chiefs appointed by Jonathan clears the way for more military co-operation, US officials say. “We’ve made clear there are additional things that can be done, especially now that there is a new military leadership in place,” a senior US official said.

Another senior official said Washington was urging Buhari, a Muslim from the country’s north, to step up regional co-operation against the militants and to provide more aid to afflicted communities to reduce the group’s recruiting power.

Buhari has said his priorities are strengthening Nigeria’s economy, hard-hit by the fall in oil prices, boosting investment, and tack- former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his associates into banks around the world.

Washington has broad powers to track suspicious funds and enforce sanctions against individuals.

Jonathan fired Nigeria’s central bank governor in February last year after he raised questions about the disappearance of about $20m (R246bn) in oil revenues.

Johnnie Carson, a former assistant secretary of state, said Washington should not let security issues overshadow the need for closer trade and investment ties.

“Nigeria is the most important country in Africa,” said Carson, currently an adviser to the US Institute of Peace.

Now more than ever, “the relationship with Nigeria should not rest essentially on a security and military-to-military relationship”, he added.

Lauren Ploch Blanchard, an Africa specialist with the non-partisan Congressional Research Services, said the US challenge was to work with Buhari while giving him time to address the country’s vast problems. How Buhari will handle the campaign against Boko Haram is still an unknown, Blanchard said. – Reuters