Posted by By IKE NNAMDI The Sun Reporter Washington DC on
Hopes of Nigerian officials and the intense lobby to have the President-elect, Umar Musa Yar'Adua to meet President George Bush before the May 29 inauguration has been dashed.
Hopes of Nigerian officials and the intense lobby to have the President-elect, Umar Musa Yar'Adua to meet President George Bush before the May 29 inauguration has been dashed.
"The White House does not have a tradition of granting formal state audience to president-elects and this is no exception," was the terse response from the seat of American government which foreclosed a meeting between the US president and Yar'Adua.
Senior White House aides disclosed that Aso Rock had sent in a request for a meeting with President Bush immediately Yar'Adua was declared the winner of the election with the hope that such a high profile meeting would erase doubts and criticisms of the conduct of the election.
Sources said initial reaction from the White House was positive, prompting Nigerian officials to begin preparations for a foreign trip that would have brought Yar'Adua to Washington DC and key capitals of the world.
Abuja also hired a prominent lobby group located in famous K Street in Washington to plan a series of events that would have brought the president-elect face to face with influential and powerful U.S leaders.
The lobby firm led by a former U.S ambassador was also contracted to reach out to key business groups and state governors for a series of meetings designed to increase the stature of Yar'Adua.
But international and local outrage over the election and protests by some lawmakers sympathetic to the Nigerian opposition forced the White House to cancel all meetings with Yar'Adua until after his swearing in.
With the American visit in doubt, Abuja decided to organize "an Africa visit " for the president-elect, while the lobby firm continued the job of trying to overcome continuing opposition pressure on US lawmakers not to endorse the election of Yar'Adua.
A White House aide said the administration's stand is not a diplomatic insult, but a standing tradition.
"Any number of challenges can surface that may change the status of a candidate, as a result, the administration prefers to arrange meetings with the president when every formal requirements have been concluded," the aide stated.