US Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton is vis­it­ing Nige­ria, and is ask­ing the nation’s gov­ern­ment to reduce cor­rup­tion. The U.S. would like to buy more oil from Nige­ria to reduce the amount it depends on from the Mid­dle East. How­ever, armed con­flict between rebels and the gov­ern­ment has dis­rupted oil pro­duc­tion there. Many peo­ple are upset that the gov­ern­ment pock­ets all the money from oil, instead of using the money to improve ser­vices in the country.

From this Asso­ci­ated Press arti­cle that we found at The Sun News, reporter Matthew Lee recorded Clinton’s statement.

“It is crit­i­cal for the peo­ple of Nige­ria, first and fore­most, but indeed for the United States that Nige­ria suc­ceeds in ful­fill­ing its promise,” Clin­ton told a news con­fer­ence after meet­ing Niger­ian For­eign Min­is­ter Ojo Maduekwe.

“We strongly sup­port and encour­age the gov­ern­ment of Nigeria’s efforts to increase trans­parency, reduce cor­rup­tion (and) pro­vide sup­port for demo­c­ra­tic processes in prepa­ra­tion for the 2011 elec­tions,” she said.

U.S. offi­cials regard Nige­ria, Africa’s most pop­u­lous nation, as a bell­wether for the continent’s suc­cess and have expressed deep con­cern about the coup-prone country’s polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion, espe­cially after 2007 elec­tions that were marred by fraud.

Maduekwe said there was a “national con­sen­sus on issues of enhanced democ­racy, a deep com­mit­ment to rule of law and elec­toral reforms” and pledged that Pres­i­dent Umaru Yar’Adua’s gov­ern­ment would deliver on reform.

Nige­ria is the fifth largest sup­plier of oil to the United States and U.S. offi­cials are also trou­bled by unrest and kid­nap­pings in the Niger Delta, where indige­nous groups have com­plained vehe­mently about exploita­tion of oil reserves by for­eign petro­leum companies.

Vio­lence in the region has led to cuts in pro­duc­tion that in June led to Angola sur­pass­ing Nige­ria in monthly oil production.

To deal with the sit­u­a­tion, Yar’Adua has offered mil­i­tants in the Niger Delta amnesty if they turn in their arms, reg­is­ter and take part in rein­te­gra­tion programs.

Maduekwe said the offer, which took effect ear­lier this month, was the result of a real­iza­tion that a new method had to be used to deal with the unrest, which the gov­ern­ment had pre­vi­ously tried to quell with mil­i­tary force.

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