‘I see Africa as the world’s next major economic success story’ – President Obama

I don’t know which part of Africa Obama is referring to but certainly not Nigeria.  I don’t mean to sound like a pessimist not now maybe 20 year's time – Blogger K

President Barack Obama, whose election in 2008 as the first black American president sparked huge expectations in Africa, will at last hold a summit next week for the continent’s leaders.

Invitations were sent to 50 heads of state and government for talks that seem designed as a counterweight to China’s decade-long surge in investment and trade with Africa.

American officials said all the countries invited to send delegations will do so, most of them headed by presidents but some by vice presidents, prime ministers or foreign ministers.

Notable absentees will include Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI who will send envoys but sub-Saharan Africa will be well represented.

Only four presidents were excluded: Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, Eritrea’s Issaias Afeworki and the Central African Republic’s transitional leader Catherine Samba Panza.

But, even if Obama’s gathering marks the greatest ever concentration of African leadership in Washington, it is not clear what kinds of results can be expected from the three-day summit.

Obama’s foreign policy was first marked by a pivot to Asia and a failed attempt to “reset” relations with Russia, and he did not make Africa a priority in his first term.

The agenda will certainly include discussion on current threats facing the continent — kidnappings and killings by Islamist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, civil war in South Sudan and deadly attacks by the Somalia militant group Shebab in Kenya.

And the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa could find itself at the center of talks.

The leaders of Sierra Leone and Liberia have cancelled their summit trips to Washington over the epidemic, which was first declared at the beginning of the year in Guinea and has so far claimed more than 725 lives.

The hemorrhagic fever, often fatal, could spread “like a forest fire,” US health authorities warned this week.

The US-Africa summit will also have a strong economic aspect, with a program focused on opportunities for the continent where 60 percent of the population is under 35 and where growth rates are higher than anywhere else in the world.

Currently, the United States is third among Africa’s major trading partners, far behind long time number one the European Union, and raw material-hungry China.

“I see Africa as the world’s next major economic success story, and the United States wants to be a partner in that success,” Obama said last year during his first presidential trip to the continent, with stops in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

But his national security advisor, Susan Rice, acknowledged Wednesday that Americans need to change their “outdated mindset” of the continent.

“Too many Americans still only see conflict, disease and poverty, and not the extraordinarily diverse Africa, brimming with innovation,” Rice said, adding “the United States can do more to compete to be a full partner in Africa’s success.”