Secretary Clinton Africa-Bound? *UPDATED*

It looks like at some point in the near future, Secretary Clinton will be heading to Nigeria, Kenya and possibly other African states.

From Foreign Policy:

News is emerging today from Nigeria that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set for a visit there, as well as Kenya and several other African countries in the not-so-distant future.

As Dow Jones puts it, “many African countries felt snubbed by [Obama's] choice of Ghana” last month for his inagural trip to the continent. That’s an excellent understatement. As I wrote here a few weeks ago, “miffed” might be a more accurate word to describe Nigeria’s feelings, in particular. Africa’s most-populous country didn’t take kindly to being upstaged by its smaller neighbor — who is, ahem, also in Nigeria’s self-dubbed sphere of influence.

Now the injustice will be at least partially remedied, it seems. Maybe Nigeria’s U.S.-based diplomats went on overdrive to secure Clinton’s visit. Or the White House was worried about angering its 3rd largest supplier of oil. Then again, the visit could have been in the cards long before the Ghana-row erupted.

I don’t remember the “Ghana-row”, but this is good news for the folks in Nigeria and Kenya.

UPDATE:The trip is reportedly scheduled for the second week in August:

United States Secretary of State and former First Lady, Hillary Clinton is set for a visit to Nigeria from August 10 to 12.

Sources said a letter from the US State Department notifying the Nigerian government of Hillary’s visit has been received at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The source further confirmed that the US ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Rene’e Sanders and Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs minister, Ojo Maduekwe met yesterday in Abuja to kick off arrangement for the visit.

During the visit, Hillary is expected to hold discussion with President Umaru Yar’Adua on a number of issues affecting both countries.

Because Nigeria is key to the US as it continues to look beyond the strife-torn Middle-East for its energy needs, sources said the Niger Delta crisis is expected to top the agenda of Hillary’s meeting with Yar’Adua.

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