American President Joe Biden has pledged his support to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Nigeria’s pursuit of a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Biden highlighted Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa and its significant contributions to global peacekeeping efforts as key factors in backing this initiative.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, made this known while briefing State House Correspondents on President Biden’s call to the Nigerian Leader on Tuesday at 4pm.
Tuggar stated that both leaders spoke for about 30 minutes on issues of mutual interest to both countries.
The Minister further made known that President Biden also thanked the Nigerian Leader for his partnership and collaboration between Nigeria and the U.S. as regards law enforcement as well as the release of one of the suspects of the cryptocurrency exchange company, Tigran Gambaryan, Binance Executive.
Tuggar revealed that President Biden also assured that partnership between Nigeria and America will continue, adding that the future of the world resides in Africa.
“President Joseph Biden at about 4pm today, where the two leaders exchanged pleasantries, and President Biden proceeded to thank President Tinubu for his partnership and for Nigeria’s partnership, and in particular, for the collaboration between the two countries with regards to law enforcement and law enforcement agencies, as well as the release of one of the suspects of the cryptocurrency exchange company (Binance).
“And the two leaders also discussed the issue of the permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council, and President Biden once again assured that the United States is committed to seeing Africa having two permanent seats and also reiterated that he does not see any reason why one of those seats should not belong to Nigeria, given its position in Africa, its stature and its importance,” the minister added.
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Tuggar further disclosed that in response, President Tinubu also thanked President Biden and the US for the partnership and collaboration in numerous areas and also discussed the issue of collaboration with regard to security in Africa, and in particular West Africa.
“President Biden, as we all know, is leaving office very soon as he’s not contesting elections, so the two leaders also exchange fondness for each other and their relationship and the meetings that they’ve had, including the g20 meeting, Which is another area where Nigeria is pushing hard to ensure that it becomes a member of the G20, and of course, they concluded by saying that they were looking forward to Staying in touch, even though President Biden is leaving office.
“And it’s also important to underscore the fact that it was made clear during the phone call that Nigeria is a law-abiding country. It is a country that is guided by rule of law, and we have their process, our processes, and the United States equally recognizes those processes and respects them.
“President Tinubu, during the course of the discussions, even mentioned the similarities, the fact that our system of government is very similar to the US system of government we adopted our own system of government, having gone back to a civilian administration and constitutional democracy in 1999 by adopting a US style system of government.
“So rule of law is very important, which is why we have these processes, and the two leaders, both assured that they will continue to collaborate in that regard,” he stated.
Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen, was arrested on a business trip to Nigeria in February and later charged alongside his company, Binance, with laundering $35.4m, and tax evasion, which they denied.
This followed the escape from custody of his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan dual national who was Binance’s Africa regional manager and had been arrested in Nigeria alongside Gambaryan.
It would be recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria last week announced in court in Abuja that it had withdrawn the money laundering charges against Tigran Gambaryan to allow him to get medical treatment outside the country.
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