WE MISSED OBASANJO IN SUDAN TALKS, SAYS US TOP OFFICIAL ON AFRICA 

LAOLU AKANDE, New York
Sunday Sept 24, 2005

Nigeria's leadership and its president's towering influence among African leaders was reportedly missed this week in New York as African leaders including several heads of states from the continent battle to determine the best formular to halt what has been described as the genocide in Darfur.

Indeed not a few diplomatic and international engagements of Nigeria and its president sufferred due to the air tragedy involving a military plane that killed some top Nigeria's Generals and others last weekend.
For instance, the Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, African presidents attending the United Nations General Assembly and foreign affairs ministers held a meeting at the African Union office in New York with the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir where the issue of an international United Nations force for Sudan was discussed. The meeting was held under the auspices of the AU's Peace and Security Council, fashioned much after the United Nations Security Council.
 
At the meeting efforts to persuade Omar all Bashir of Sudan on the need to deply a UN force, a resolution already passed by the UN Security Council, fell on deaf ears. Many at the meeting believed that it was through the UN force that the worsening conditions in Darfur can be contained and eventually stopped especially because of the logistical constraints and limited resources of the AU troops.
 
But the Sudanese president continued his rejection of a UN force and was believed to have left the meeting before the end in protest.
 
In an exclusive chat with, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Dr. Jendayi Frazer lamented that Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo was absent at that meeting.
 
The US government has been in the forefront of depicting the Darfur crisis as a genocide and led the UN resolution for a UN force to be deployed in Darfur. But the Americans have insisted that the onus is on African leaders to ensure that Sudanese crisis does not become another Rwanda.
 
Said Frazer, a top aide to the US president and Secretary of state Condoleeza Rice on Africa one of the problems at the meeting of African leaders in New York on Wednesday was because the Nigerian president could not attend "with his strong and decisive voice."
 
Frazer said Nigeria's leadership was much missed. Said she: "We probably would have gotten a much more desirable outcome if Obasanjo was in the room." According to her the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement, DPA, had been due partly to Nigeria's president and former foreign affairs minister's influence alongside the former OUA Secretary General Salim Salim.
 
Indeed President Olusegun Obasanjo's plans to participate in this year's United Nations General Assembly-which incidentally is the last before he relinquishes power next April- have suffered due to the tragedy and so too his expectations to possibly confer with US President George W. Bush, who was also in New York for the better past of last week attending the global summit of the General Assembly which opened last Tuesday at the headquarters of the world body here.
 
Besides, an evening of celebration being organised by the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation to honor Obasanjo last Wednesday in New York was also canceled because of the plane crash, according to African Americans who were putting the programme together.
  

Robot  Villager

# 1 Nigeria's leadership and its president's towering influence among African leaders was reportedly...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 25.09.2006 22:55

Exxcuzme  Villager

# 2 ________________________________________________________________________ the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation to honor Obasanjo last Wednesday in New York was also canceled because of the plane crash, according to African Americans who were putting the programme together. ________________________________________________________________________ This Sullivan people self......dem dey enjoy our millions given to them by OBJoke. Posted by Exxcuzme| 26.09.2006 00:42

Exxcuzme  Villager

# 3 ________________________________________________________________________ the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation to honor Obasanjo last Wednesday in New York was also canceled because of the plane crash, according to African Americans who were putting the programme together. ________________________________________________________________________ This Sullivan people self......dem dey enjoy our millions given to them by OBJoke. Posted by Exxcuzme| 26.09.2006 00:48

ithinkbetter  Villager

# 4 =Exxcuzme;132143>________________________________________________________________________ the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation to honor Obasanjo last Wednesday in New York was also canceled because of the plane crash, according to African Americans who were putting the programme together. ________________________________________________________________________ This Sullivan people self......dem dey enjoy our millions given to them by OBJoke. @Exxcuzme, hi %^*&(, if you gotta not to say, don't say anything...! Posted by ithinkbetter| 26.09.2006 13:28

tatafo  Villager

# 5 This Sullivan people have they not enjoyed the loot from Baba enough. Now they have jamborees for him in New York under the pretext of celebrating some warped achievements. I actually wonder which achievements they are celebrating. Is it the congo's he shined or the cars he buys his girlfriends or all the money his aides and his businesses have benefited from in the past 7yrs. Abegi! Miss him ko, miss him ni! As sad and regrettable as the crash was, it saved Nigerians from another congo fishing expedition in the USA. Who knows how many in his harem might have accompanied him, while receiving estacodes and car gifts, or whether his aides procure them for him wherever he goes visitng.mad: Meanwhile Admin, I joined other villagers to put "donthinkatall" on my ban list and he keeps showing up still, please how do I address this anomaly?::confused1 Posted by tatafo| 26.09.2006 15:07