Nigerian acting leader heads to US

AFP/File – Nigerian Acting President Goodluck Jonathan arrives to attend the Economic Community of West African …

ABUJA (AFP) – Nigeria's acting leader flies to the United States at the weekend on his first foreign trip since taking over two months ago from the country's sick president, the government said on Friday.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan will be in Washington to attend an international nuclear security summit and is expected to meet US President Barack Obama.

"He is expected to meet US President, Barack Obama, on Sunday, April 11, for a one-on-one meeting. He is also expected to meet with US Vice President Joe Biden, the US Congressional black caucus, as well as the president of the World Bank," Jonathan's spokesman Ima Niboro said in a statement.

"The president of the (Nigerian) senate, David Mark, has been fully apprised of the acting president?s four-day visit to the United States," the statement said.

Senior officials in the presidency, including federal government secretary Yayale Ahmed and national security adviser Aliyu Gusau, "would be fully on ground during the period of Jonathan's absence, it added.

"The purpose of the visit is the nuclear summit. On the side of that summit, the acting president will have a chance to meet with President Obama and to discuss matters of bilateral interests," Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia said earlier Friday.

Bilateral talks between the United States and Nigeria, its fifth largest source of oil, are expected to take place on the fringes of the summit.

Ajumogobia refused to disclose details of the bilateral agenda, but Jonathan on Thursday met the father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of attempting to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day.

No details of the meeting between the two were released.