Vice-President Kamala Harris of the United States of America has expressed hope that next year’s general election will be peaceful and reflective of the will of the people.

She spoke at the White House after a meeting with her Nigerian counterpart, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Harris also praised Nigeria’s leadership role in upholding democracy in West Africa.

“Nigeria has also been an important partner in upholding the international rules-based order, whether it is tackling the democratic backsliding that we’ve been seeing in West Africa, or standing up for Ukraine at the United Nations.

“The United States remains committed to supporting free and fair elections in Nigeria next February, elections, which we have confidence will be peaceful and reflect the will of the people and of course, we do feel very strongly, as I know you do, that Nigeria is and must remain a bastion of democracy for West Africa.

“More broadly, Africa’s leadership is key to confronting all of the global challenges we face and to that end, Nigeria is key. So, we look forward to strengthening our partnership,” she said.

Harris said African leadership, and in particular, Nigeria’s leadership, was key to confronting regional and global challenges.

She lauded the discussions to strengthen the existing relationships between the United States and Nigeria and commended Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP) under Osinbajo’s leadership, saying “I have no question that they-ETP goals-would be achieved.”

In recognition of his ongoing global advocacy on a just energy transition towards 2060 net-zero emissions target, VP Harris said her Nigerian counterpart had “been an extraordinary leader on this issue and I noticed this is something you feel very strongly about and you have been very adamant about the role Nigeria is playing in addressing this crisis that face us all.”

Harris said the United States had committed $7 billion in food security and humanitarian assistance to African countries over the past year alone.

Speaking on America’s leadership role in Climate Change, Prof. Osinbajo noted the “United States’ leadership in the area of Climate Change and we are all excited to queue behind the US and see that we get many of these objectives.”

The Vice President told his counterpart that Nigeria’s recently launched Energy Transition Plan (ETP) (launched just last week) is the country’s master plan for addressing the issues of climate crisis and energy poverty.

He added that Nigeria will require investment support towards the implementation of the Energy Transition Plan, referring to his earlier meetings in the past few days in the US Capital at the World Bank Group, the US Treasury and the US Agency for International Development, USAID.

Osinbajo said both countries must continue to work together at the bilateral and multilateral levels to address common global challenges, promote peace and security, tackle pandemics, climate change, and economic adversity.

He also praised the US Inflation Reduction Act.

“We also must appreciate the firm support that we received from the US especially in our fight against terrorism within our borders and in the Sahel and of course, the very timely donation of vaccines, 4 million vaccines, as we battled the COVID-19 pandemic. And that, of course, was extremely useful,” he added. (Daily Trust)

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