President Muhammadu Buhari has received the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken at the State House in Abuja.
Blinken arrived at the presidential complex in a motorcade on Thursday and is expected to have a meeting with Buhari in his office.
The Nigerian leader and US top diplomat are also expected to discuss security issues facing Nigeria especially terrorism in the northern region.
Blinken will, after the meeting, head to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s office to sign some agreements between the US and Nigeria and also hold a joint press conference with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, before leaving the State House.
The US diplomat is on a three-nation tour of Africa and had first visited Kenya where he called for African-driven solutions to the continent’s crises including the spiralling war in Ethiopia — where Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo has been leading mediation.
With 20 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population and its largest economy, Nigeria is critical for any continent-wide strategy and successive US administrations have courted Nigerian leaders since the restoration of civilian rule in 1999.