PHOTOS; U.S. to trace Nigerian stolen assets, boost military help

The United States will offer to help Nigeria's new leader track
down billions of dollars in stolen assets and increase U.S.
military assistance to fight Islamic militants, U.S. officials said, as
Washington seeks to "reset" ties with Africa's biggest economy.
President Muhammadu Buhari visit to the US is viewed by the
U.S. administration as a chance to set the seal on improving ties
since he won a March election hailed as Nigeria's first
democratic power transition in decades.
U.S. cooperation with Buhari's predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan,
had virtually ground to a halt over issues including his refusal to
investigate corruption and human rights abuses by the Nigerian
military.
"President Barack Obama has long seen Nigeria as arguably the
most important strategic country in sub-Saharan Africa," U.S.
Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken told Reuters. "The
question is would there be an opportunity to deepen our
engagement and that opportunity is now."
The improving ties with Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer,
come as U.S. relations have cooled with two other traditional
Africa powers - Egypt and South Africa.
U.S. officials have said they are willing to send military trainers
to help Nigeria counter a six-year-old northern insurgency by
the Boko Haram Islamist movement.
Since Buhari's election, Washington has committed $5 million in
new support for a multi-national task force set up to fight the
group. This is in addition to at least $34 million it is providing to
Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger for equipment and logistics.
Buhari's move on July 13 to fire military chiefs appointed by
Jonathan clears the way for more military cooperation, U.S.
officials say.
"We've made clear there are additional things that can be done
especially now that there is a new military leadership in place," a
senior U.S. official said.
Another senior U.S. official said Washington was urging Buhari, a
Muslim from the country's north, to step up regional
cooperation against the militants and to provide more aid to
afflicted communities to reduce the group's recruiting power.
Buhari has said his priorities are strengthening Nigeria's
economy, hard-hit by the fall in oil prices, boosting investment,
and tackling "the biggest monster of all" - corruption.
"Here too he is looking to deepen collaboration and one of the
things he is focused on is asset recovery," the official said. "He is
hopeful we can help them recover some of that."
In 2014, the United States took control of more than $480
million siphoned away by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha
and his associates into banks around the world.
Washington has broad powers to track suspicious funds and
enforce sanctions against individuals.
Jonathan fired Nigeria's central bank governor in February last
year after he raised questions about the disappearance of about
$20 billion in oil revenues.
Johnnie Carson, a former assistant secretary of state, said
Washington should not let security issues overshadow the need
for closer trade and investment ties.
"Nigeria is the most important country in Africa," said Carson,
currently an adviser to the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Now more than ever, "the relationship with Nigeria should not
rest essentially on a security and military-to-military
relationship," he added.
Lauren Ploch Blanchard, an Africa specialist with the non-
partisan Congressional Research Services, said the U.S. challenge
was to work with Buhari while giving him time to address the
country's vast problems.
How Buhari will handle the campaign against Boko Haram is still
an unknown, Blanchard said.