Blinken in Nigeria, meets Tinubu for bilateral talks

The United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is currently in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Blinken touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at about 4.00pm, from where he proceeded to the Presidential Villa and had a closed-door meeting with the Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Although he is on tour of Africa, Blinken will later depart to Lagos at about 10.00pm for other engagements scheduled for Wednesday and is expected to depart Nigeria for Angola on Wednesday night.

Although the senior US official is visiting Tinubu for the first time since the latter assumed the Presidency eight months ago, it would be his second visit to the seat of power since November 2021 when he met President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria is Blinken’s third destination in his week-long whistle-stop tour which began in Cabo Verde through Ivory Coast and is scheduled to end in the Central African state of Angola.