LAGOS, NIGERIA - In case you missed it, Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke in Lagos about the United States’ commitment to a deep and lasting relationship with Africa.

“Across presidents, Democrat, Republican and then Democrat, we work together to sustain our partnership with Africa. And so, don’t expect some sudden change in our direction, don’t expect that suddenly with a new president, there will be a new priority, and it will not be Africa,” said Senator Coons. “Know that all of us served before our current president, and hope to serve after our current president, and that the relationship between the United States and Africa has been strengthened by those who have visited a dozen times, and those who are visiting for the first time. Know that you have in the United States, and those who are before you today, a deep and enduring friendships.”

“We have challenges of governance, of transparency, of making sure we continue to hold our elected officials accountable, to make sure that we make the chairman processes and elections more fair and predictable, less corrupt and more positive,” said Senator Coons. “This is a challenge we face together. Ours is a young democracy, not a perfect democracy, and as we had a powerful conversation earlier today, many of you, I hope, will learn about the challenges we face and have faced, and how we can face them together.”

Full audio is available here.

Senator Coons’ remarks, as delivered, are below: 

Thank you to our host this evening, to the Ambassador. Thank you to everyone who is a part of the United States Foreign Service, everyone who is in our Armed Forces, our intelligence community, who is in our Foreign Service who we’ve had the honor to meet with here, and the humanitarian volunteers with whom we met up in Borno State. We are just blessed to have wonderful Americans working and representing and a part of our relationship with Nigeria. I’ll take just a few minutes if I might to talk about just three basic things.

First, what is it that we’re trying to say by being here, a delegation of eight Americans from Congress? A delegation that is both Democrats and Republicans, from both the Senate and the House, from all over our great country, from Florida to Colorado, from California to Mizzou. We are committed to a deep and lasting relationship with Africa. There are some things that have happened in our politics, our elections, that might make people question whether there will be a big change in our future, in our relationships with Africa, and we just wanted to remind you that some of the greatest things in the American partnership with the 54 countries of the amazing continent of Africa have endured from president to president. President Clinton launched AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which is still vibrant and active today, a number of us helped to reauthorize it, and gives access to the American market. President Bush, a Republican, started PEPFAR, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which shows the heart of the American people in partnership with the people of Nigeria in caring for those with HIV Aids and creating long-term development partnerships. And President Obama, a member of my own party, launched something important, Power Africa, and something I’m excited about, Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI. What’s the theme here? That across presidents, Democrat, Republican and then Democrat, we work together to sustain our partnership with Africa. And so, don’t expect some sudden change in our direction, don’t expect that suddenly with a new president, there will be a new priority, and it will not be Africa. Know that all of us served before our current president, and hope to serve after our current president, and that the relationship between the United States and Africa has been strengthened by those who have visited a dozen times, and those who are visiting for the first time. Know that you have in the United States, and those who are before you today, a deep and enduring friendships.

Second, know that we spend time here, and I’ll be brief on this because the Ambassador touched on it, making sure that we really got to see and hear from a full range of opportunities and challenges in Africa. We had great meetings with leaders of country, both elected, the Vice President and Ministers of the Cabinet, the leaders of the Senate and House, the leaders of the military community in Abuja. We also we to Borno State. Thank you for recognizing that this is the first Congressional delegation that has been to Borno State. Let’s address the challenges we face together. Terrorism is a challenge that confronts the American people in the United States, something that we have wrestled with since 9/11 and before, something that we know our friends and partners in Nigeria also wrestle with. We had the opportunity to meet with the brave Nigerian military leaders who are confronting the challenge of Boko Haram, and with some of our advisors from the American Special Forces. We got a chance to meet with a whole range of the nonprofit organization from around this country and the world, who are addressing famine and challenges. We net with the deputy government, and addressed Borno State government, and we had a chance to visit a refugee camp. It is heartbreaking to see the challenges faced by the people of Borno State, but know that they do not face those challenges alone. We are passionate about the Chibok girls, no one as much as Congresswoman Wilson, and we had a chance to meet with them in Abuja, and to tell those who have been returned that members of the American Congress have been praying for them, working for them, and hoping for them, but we know there is much more hard work to do, and know that we intend to do that together, and that the US intends to be a good and strong and close ally as we confront them together.

Last, we have some things deeply in common. We are both federal republics. We are both multi-faith, multi-party, multi-lingual robust democracies with vibrant media and a great history of tradition of entrepreneurship and creativity. As I was trying to describe to my sons what it’s like going to Lagos, I said it’s like going to Los Angeles and Miami and New York all in one visit. And to Tony and Unko who hosted a fascinated, positive meeting with business leaders earlier today, thank you my friend. We had a great meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce to see all the good that American companies are doing and how much more we hope to do together. We started the day with a great conversation with a small group of YALI fellows and Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship fellows to hear about the amazing solutions young Nigerians are coming forward with. When you find the solution to challenges facing Nigeria, you find solutions not just to the problems facing Africa, but the challenges facing the entire world. So know that we recognize the vibrancy, the creativity, the entrepreneurship as you confront the very real challenges facing Nigeria and America. Climate change is a very real problem that is affecting this city and our cities. We are confronting tragic flooding in at home Houston, and many of us are from coastal states with coastal cities. There is no more coastal city than Lagos. And as we went across the Lagoon today to see the power plant and to think about the future of addressing power generation and how it can be done more cleanly and more sustainably, we also noticed marine debris, the plastic trash that floats up on our shores all over the world, another challenge we must face together.

We have challenges of governance, of transparency, of making sure we continue to hold our elected officials accountable, to make sure that we make the chairman processes and elections more fair and predictable, less corrupt and more positive. This is a challenge we face together. Ours is a young democracy, not a perfect democracy, and as we had a powerful conversation earlier today, many of you, I hope, will learn about the challenges we face and have faced, and how we can face them together.

The market is Nigeria is astonishing. There’s a reason that there are companies here from all over the world. But the opportunities here are even more remarkable. Perhaps you’ve hear about generation bump. As a recent analysis shows the number of banked, urban and plugged in professionals here in Lagos alone is nearly 30 million. This is an incredibly desirable and creative route within the much larger community of Nigeria. But we came here not just to see and to talk with great titans of industry that manufacture cement, and sugar, and salt, who build infrastructure and who build banking institutions, but also the creative leaders of Nollywood, those who are making films that are watched all over the world, and that are demonstrating that Nigeria has a film culture and a film industry that rivals the greatest in the world.

We also know that the young leaders of Nigeria have creativity, have solutions, have insights to how we will confront the most challenging things together. What you might not know is just how much Nigeria has already touched the United States. We are a country made up of people from all over the world, and the Nigerian diaspora is the largest, the best educated and the most successful. And just to be a human testament to that, my dear friend Victor Udo flew up here to join us this afternoon. Victor spent 20 years in my home state of Delaware, where he was a power engineer, and where I appointed him to the local planning board. And like so many talented Nigerians, he’s returned home to help with the power sector and with planning. There are so many Nigerians who have bene successful in the United States, we know that we are of each other, that we have similar values, similar dreams and similar challenges.  As you heard from Tony earlier, I host an annual conference in Delaware, it has an intentional title: Opportunity Africa. Sometimes the media focuses only on negative things in the United States when we look at Africa. Sometimes it focuses only on Borno State. And the challenges there are real. But we conclude our visit to Nigeria and I conclude my remarks with a focus on the amazing audience I see before me- the vibrant media, the creative and hopeful young people, the energy that is the Nigerian people, and the enormous heart with which you’ve welcomed us on this great trip to your great nation. We look forward to your partnership. We look forward to return visits. And we look forward to the creative solutions we will find to the problems of our world. Thank you.

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