Obama to send high-powered delegation to Buhari’s inauguration

International interest in Nigeria’s political transition and the planned transfer of power from the Jonathan-Sambo presidency to the Buhari-Osinbajo presidency billed for May 29 has risen in the United States as President Barack Obama now considers sending a high-powered U.S. delegation to the event, officials said Wednesday.

U.S. government sources said Mr. Obama is considering who might lead the American representatives to the event.

Besides, at least two US Ivy universities-Harvard and Yale – have since held special review sessions where scholars were invited from around the U.S. and the world to give lectures and seminars on the outcome of the Nigerian elections, focusing on the emergence of a former military head of state, who is a Muslim from the North of Nigeria, and a Christian pastor, who is a law professor from the South as president-elect and vice president-elect respectively.

Three names are already being mentioned in official U.S. and diplomatic circles including Obama’s wife, the American First Lady, Michelle, Vice President Joe Biden and the Secretary of State, John Kerry, as the head of the presidential delegation. From the U.S. Congress also, some of the senior members are said to be planning to attend the event including the Chairman of the US House of Representatives Sub Committee on Africa, Congressman Chris Smith.

The U.S. President normally announces a delegation to the presidential inaugurations of friendly nations being led by the Ambassador in that country. But in rare occasions, he picks very senior public officials as the head of delegation when he wants to underscore and emphasis a point of how the US highly regards the country or the circumstances at a given point in time.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to the U.S., Ade Adefuye, said, “I have been told that there would be an unusually large American delegation that will attend the presidential inauguration on May 29″.