 Your Honours, distinguished colleagues, on behalf of the United States Institute of Peace, it is a privilege to welcome you to USIP, which was established by the U.S. Congress in 1984 as a national, nonpartisan public institution dedicated to helping prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflict abroad. We are honoured to be joined today by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Mohamedu Buhari. We share the privilege of co-hosting this conversation with the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, and the National Endowment for Democracy. We are honoured to welcome the distinguished members of the Nigerian delegation, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Industry, Trade and Investment, Environment, Health, Justice, Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Minister of Federal Capital Territorial Administration. We are honoured to welcome the Governors of Bouchi and Kauawa states and the permanent representative of the United Nations and the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States. All distinguished representatives of the Nigerian government are warmly welcomed. His Excellency, Mr. President, it was an honour to host you in 2015 at USIP. Just a few months after the historic election, when you became the first opposition candidate to unseat an elected Nigerian president through the ballot box. And it is a double honour to host you now a few months away from your country's national and state elections. The 2015 election was a milestone for Nigeria and multi-party democracy in Africa. Everyone watches what happens in Nigeria. When Nigeria upholds democratic principles, tackles corruption, creates economic opportunities and shows the way forward, other countries follow. Excellency, your leadership in signing the historic Electoral Act and empowering the Independent National Electoral Commission, your commitment to political pluralism, and the legacy you leave of non-interference and electoral processes have created the conditions and set the stage for credible, free and fair elections in Nigeria next February. We are very pleased to welcome Ambassador Johnny Carson, who is USIP Senior Advisor and has just been appointed as President Biden's Special Representative to promote and facilitate implementation of the agreements that have been reached during this week's summit. Ambassador Carson will be moderating our discussion and will be reflecting on your Excellency's leadership of democratic renewal and the important lessons for Africa and for the world on the value of strengthening democratic institutions, expanding the electorate and protecting the vote. Excellency, Mr. President, we invite you to the podium. President of the United States Institute of Peace and Co-hosts, head of the International Agency, Nigerian delegation, ladies and gentlemen, let me first thank Ambassador Johnny Carson and his team from the Institute of Peace for inviting me back to interface with the Washington community of global thought leaders and democracy advocacy groups on developments across the world, especially in developing nations that are grappling with the challenges of embedding democratic processes and systems. Specifically, I recognize the representatives of the United National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the International Foundation for Electoral System and the National Endowment for Democracy. All of you are our able co-hosts for today's conversation. I recall, Mr. Selya, our last meeting at this institute in 2015, shortly after I assumed office, following my victory in the historic general election, that witnessed a seamless transition of government from an incumbent ruling party of 16 years and people's democratic party to a young, off-start opposition party, the All Progressive Congress. You will recall that the election in 2015 in Nigeria were adjudged to be free, fair, and by both the domestic and international election observers. That visit in 2015 offered me the opportunity to underscore the significance of the attestation by the international elections observer groups. The credibility of those elections, its demonstration effect, and the impact such as for peace, not only in Nigeria but in the sub-region and the continent, hence a major contribution to international peace and security. Remember that Nigeria is a nation of over 200 million people. Therefore, instability in Nigeria has grave consequences, not only for Africa but the whole world. That first interaction with you in 2015 also afforded me the opportunity to unveil the vision and focus of our administration in three critical areas, namely security, economy, and fighting corruption. I am therefore very pleased today that this stage which served as my opening act has once more presented itself as the curtains are almost being drawn for the opportunity to share experiences and discuss the last seven and a half years. When I met you in 2015, I was not unaware of the enormous domestic and international goodwill that I attracted. Although I am a converted Democrat and not to your run of the mill for a tissue and therefore less inclined to engage in double talk, my advisors may not be happy with me in this regard. I am, however, majored in speaking but always certain that the truth I shall speak and this has huge consequences in a political space wherein this is the exception rather than the norm. Politics in our country is generally an argumentative and the rancorous business. These two characteristics does not necessarily diminish the value of democracy whose impact on governance is a product of rancorous debates to ensure the buy-in of the majority of the people or representatives. More importantly, such an outcome represents the will of the people and not only of the leadership. Our political journey over the last seven or last years has pretty much been guided by this attribute of democracy. This process does not endear itself to speedy decisions. No formulation of easily implementable policies. The characteristic trade-offs in democracy necessarily makes governance an extremely slow process. I am sure that you are familiar with the reference to me as Baba Goslo, majority of my compatriots would rather prefer that every day new policy decisions or actions are reeled out to our government in a manner of a military administration. But we are in a democracy and a converted democracy like me must listen and or be guided by majority opinions and most importantly must learn to understand the knock on effect of actions before they are undertaken. All these contribute to the grind that characterizes a deliberate process. And of course there is a low factor that we must all turn there in mind. Without adhering to its basic tenets, you cannot be characterized as democratic in your actions or conduct. Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, you may all recall that when I was elected in 2015 on the float form of all progress of Congress, our clear promises and commitments were to end the rising insecurity and violent conflict by Boko Haram in the northeastern part of Nigeria, fight corruption and build strong and resilient national economy. Regrettably, when we assumed office on May 29, 2015, our administration inherited a tragedy with various leakages, dwindling oil revenues triggered by the decline in oil prices in the international market, which is a major source of foreign exchange. This inevitably forced Nigeria into an economic recession. Our concerted and coordinated actions enabled Nigeria to quickly exit the recession. These actions were our deliberate policy in the economy recovery and growth plan facilitated our exit from the recession. This policy focused on effective economic planning and managing expenditure to checkmate socio-economic vulnerabilities of the citizens. We remain convinced that this would inevitably weaken and break the vicious cycle of insecurity. Similarly, our administration had to refocus its attention to the pursuit of citizens-driven reforms and appropriate intervention programs in responding to challenges of violent conflict, insecurity and criminality in order to cushion the impact of economic hardship on the burnable groups in the society. Such efforts included boosting investors' confidence and diversification in the non-oil sector. We recognized the need to jump-start domestic production and through various intervention programs, we focused on channeling capital to micro, small and medium enterprises which are the building blocks of successful economies across the globe. As you may know, our nation has a youth bulge. Among our many blessings is that of an extremely industrious, creative and hard-working youthful population. These youth symbolize the energy and promise that innate in the Nigerian. In recognition of this and to give sufficient oxygen to their growth in start-ups and technologies space, we have gained immense foothold in Nigeria and we see its steady contribution in our growth domestic product. We signed into law the Nigeria Start-Up Act, a landmark legislation that lays the groundwork in supporting our start-up enterprises. I earlier made reference to our policy to jump-start domestic production and through our agricultural sector focused interventions driven by the Central Bank of Nigeria, we transitioned from being a net importer of our staple food rights to becoming self-sufficient in its production. This same scheme has financed the establishment and operations of our 50 integrated rice mills, 50. It has also financed over 4.5 million small holder farmers and showed the cultivation of almost 6 million hectares of farmland and almost 700 large-scale agricultural projects have been funded. This agricultural revolution has led to the creation of over 13 million direct and indirect jobs. The takeaway from our focus on the agricultural sector is as follows. We are in a better position to handle the systematic shock caused by both coronavirus and the Russian Ukraine war on global food supply chains and related prices spikes and while also improving our capacity in the agroalide sector such that we now need to be more efficient in enhancing and maximizing production yields and post harvest losses. Distinguished guests and friends of Nigeria, this step is one amongst several that we have taken towards expanding our economy. The non-oil sector remains the future of our economy and I hope successive governments will consolidate on the gains we have recorded under our administration. The Russia-Ukrainian has compelled many economies to carry out reforms and readjust policies to cope with the challenges posed by the conflict. In this regard, we are paying more attention now to energy transmission and distribution through targeted collaboration with global companies like Siemens to improve our efficiency in the far-value chain. I would also like to briefly seize this opportunity to touch upon a few points regarding our view of recent events in energy space. As a member of the global community, we have participated in several rounds of talks regarding climate change and various decisions emerging from COP26 and the just concluded COP27. But as I stated in my Washington Post article, there can't be double standards where in Western nations use their influence and weight to turn the types of global financing for fossil fuel transactions, which are much needed by developing nations. Yet when they feel the pinch, they are quick to turn on their coal-powered plants. We owe it to our people to create jobs and livelihoods and we can't accomplish this without maximizing our comparative advantage in energy to build up our manufacturing and industrial base. Therefore, stronger commitment needs to be made to the fund for climate adaptation and mitigation if indeed there is intent to establish equity and fairness. Despite glooming outlook in the global economy and the ongoing war in Ukraine, Nigeria's economy continues to register positive growth, especially in the last two quarters. Government spending on infrastructure has also been a critical aspect of our overall strategy. Our infrastructure deficit is widely known and with the volatility in capital markets, we devise creative ways of finding this infrastructure gap to build roads and thus improving connectivity between markets and facilitating trade. We devise investment tax credit schemes and the use of Sukuk bonds to reconstruct, develop and rehabilitate over 20,000 kilometers of roads. Additionally, we have revitalized our once-come-a-towards railroads, such as the trains are now up and running along critical corridors in different parts of the country. Our efforts on corruption continue to fail off as the relevant agencies continue to make impressive recoveries as well as secure court convictions of those sabotaging Nigeria's efforts for sustained development and growth. The major cash recoveries will be deployed in a transparent way towards funding these infrastructure gaps. On security, global terrorism, mandatory and other transnational crimes, these continue to pose enormous challenges not only to Nigeria, but to global peace and security, as these acts have become the renal threats to sustained economic development and growth, which ought to be dividends of democracy. Nigeria and other regional bodies in Africa and the rest of the world are working assiduously to deal with these existential threats to the very existence of humanity. As a country, Nigeria continues to engage bilaterally and multilaterally to comprehensively win the war on Boko Haram and related terror groups as well as overcoming the evidences of kidnapping and mandatory in Nigeria. You may recall that when I assumed power, Boko Haram held about two-thirds of Borno State, half of Yobi State, and a couple of local government areas in Adamawa State. Today, this is no longer the case, but if a country and sub-regime will continue to be negatively impacted by the events in Libya, Central Africa Republic, the Sahel, and the war in Ukraine, our region is awash with small and light weapons that continue to freely circulate as well as cope with the influx of foreign fighters. Our armed forces, and those of our partners in the multinational joint task force, consistent of Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Benin Republic, and Nigeria continue to demonstrate great bravery while paying the ultimate price in securing our collective freedom. Despite the difficult times we face, we continue to spend very scarce and lean resources to ensure that we have a well-resourced military force to take this task. Ideally, these are resources that could be spent on education or health care or other social services, but without peace, we have learned the hard way that our children cannot go to school or seek good health care. We are nonetheless willing, winning the war, and making significant progress in dealing with the threats to Nigeria and the sub-regions, safety, and survival. This steady progress is in spite of the negative reportage in international media, as well as the non-talented actions and attitudes of some of our friends and allies to sufficiently appreciate our efforts in the fight against terrorism. Rather than focus on negativity, which is the trouble adversaries have become, Nigeria, the sub-regions of Africa, and the rest of the world can work more constantly together to combat terrorism and prevent violent extremism, both of which are challenges to global peace and stability, and not just Nigeria and Africa alone. Not to withstand these institutional deficits from some friends and allies, Nigeria remains open to working with the international community and other deployment partners to enhance global security and stability. Nigeria has always maintained that secured and stable Nigeria is indispensable for overall peace and prosperity of not only the country, but Africa, with huge implications for global peace and stability. There lies the wisdom of the persistent efforts by Nigeria and calls for strategic partnership with the United States of America to fight our common challenges together. Such challenges are terrorism, climate change, and entrenching democracy in Africa. Presently, Nigeria has collaborated with the United Nations counter-terrorism entities in several areas, including building capacity and critical justice responses through training of judges, prosecutors, and investigators. Nigeria is on the verge of commissioning her new counter-terrorism center, and it would serve as a hub for counter-terrorism coordination and research in West Africa. Our efforts are driven by our Terrorism Prevention Act 2022, the national counter-terrorism strategy, as well as the policy framework and national action plan on preventing and countering violent extremism. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the stage is now set for Nigeria to conduct another general election in February 2023. And I am resolute in my determination to enable the conduct of free, fair, and transparent national elections in the first quarter of 2023, whose outcome would be largely accepted to the contestants. Since 2015, the conduct of our election continued to steadily improve. From the 2019 general election, the bi-election and the off-season election in Edo, Ikiti, Anambra, and Ocean States were conducted in largely improved contexts to the satisfaction of contestants and voters. That is what we hope for in 2023. Through the observatory rules of the international community, the credibility of the election can be further enhanced to make the acceptability of the outcome to the contestants and political parties a known issue. Nigeria and the United States of America share many attributes, apart from being among the largest democracies in the world. Nigeria's constitutional framework and brand of democracy are patterned along the United States of America and the two countries are the largest economies, as well as most populous on their respective continents. With respect to the subregion and the need not to cave in to the democratic setbacks in Mali, Guinea, and Bikini Faso, there is the need to aggressively work together to improve the quality of governance in the West African subregion, where the survival of democracy is currently challenged. This can be done through targeted investment that can enhance dividends of democracy and creations of robust means of livelihood for the people, as well as for more accountability and transparency by the political class. I call on all of you here to present, to continue to partner with us and our electoral body for the needed collaborative efforts, which are critical to defining and stabilizing democracy in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. The recent reversal, which is in Mali, Bikini Faso, Guinea, are most unfortunate. Indeed, and Air Force continues to effectively remain engaged with these countries in order to restore democracy to all the member states of Air Force, as indeed the entire African continent. Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your attention. Mr. President, thank you for a wonderfully comprehensive speech. It's a pleasure for me to be here with you, as I was in 2015, to be able to share this stage and to enter into a discussion with you about what has been a very comprehensive speech. There is no doubt that the United States and Nigeria share some fundamental values and principles together. The one that you most deeply enunciated is your commitment to democracy and the legacy that you yourself have committed to ensuring that happens. I would like to start our conversation this morning, or I should say this afternoon, with the issue of democracy. You clearly are committed to ensuring that it continues to move forward. You stated so this afternoon, and you were equally eloquent in New York in September in your speech at the UN General Assembly. The question that I would have with respect to democracy is the issue of whether INEC, which is the National Election Commission, is it ready and prepared and able to carry out the kind of election that's necessary in Nigeria to keep the process moving forward? Thank you very much. INEC, as you asked, whether INEC is prepared to conduct the election next year, I would say they are. Because I made sure they were given all the resources they asked, so I don't want any excuse that they were denied funds by the government. So they were given the money, although some of their offices in 102 geo-political zones have been attacked. But all the same, INEC has not complained, and certainly they could not complain that they were denied resources to make sure that their infrastructure is firmly in place. Mr. President, you've alluded to the issue of security. In recent weeks and over the last month, there have been a number of reports that say INEC offices have, in fact, been burned and vandalized. Will this insecurity around INEC's offices impede the election process? Will it slow it down? No, it will not. I think there are only two incidents. And don't forget, we have six geo-political zones. We have 31 states from the federal capital. And if two offices out of these states, 31 states in Abuja, if two offices in one geo-political zone were attacked, I think in relative terms, the security is good. And certainly, the result of elections in Anambara, I mentioned it, Anambara, Oshin, and Akiti prove that Nigerians have appreciated that the administration is defending them to choose whichever person from whichever party. And that's the fundamental good thing about democracy. Let's say people have the choice. And I think Nigerians are realizing that because of the result of elections in Anambara, in Oshin state, and in Akiti state. If I could carry on with the issue of democracy and extended to the broader West African region, you alluded to that in your speech, how can the United States and Nigeria and other democracies work with the region to strengthen democracy across West Africa? You've mentioned the democratic backsliding that has occurred in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea-Conakry. How can the countries committed to democracy work more effectively to promote democracy and build democratic resilience to democratic backsliding? I think the developing countries, especially in Africa and West Africa in particular, are very much our offer, the United States' power. And that's why we virtually adopted our constitution of policy based on the United States of America. Success, as they said, determines the efforts of developing countries. United States, with its resources, its enormous influence is the world over. We, when I say we, I mean the developing countries, especially in Africa, cannot afford to be on the wrong side of the United States. That's why we adopted its system. Because its system, it is proven that their system is working. So we better try to copy the system that works rather than those that are very doubtful. So I think my answer is quite clear. We are sure that certainly the United States is the most powerful country in the world, both military and economically. And technology, again, is helping us. And again, that is making sure that we get across decisions and so on. From other less developed countries, for example, Nigeria, we have a coup, counter coup, civil war, coup counter coup. And we have gone through that. We found out, as I kept on saying, we can't do half step and jump. We have to go through the painful stages of development. We are learning the hard way. Otherwise, we are a few who are learning, especially from their neighbors. I was not expecting any military takeovers in my region, in Air Force region. But there it is. It has taken place. So I think we are acutely aware of our state of development. And we are doing our best to make sure we stabilize the quality and the economy. And we are grateful for the United States understanding and the health of that life. Mr. President, can I shift a little bit to the economy? You mentioned that oil is not the future of Nigeria's economy. I'd like to ask about diversification. But I'd like to ask about diversification and innovation. Nigeria is frequently cited as having one of the largest film and communication industries, not only in Africa but globally. What is your government doing to help to strengthen this industry? And what are you doing to support innovation in technology and digital technology and information? Well, as I mentioned in my speech, our population is more than 200 million. And the expectation by the population for government to make life secure, economically vibrant is a major challenge. We in Nigeria, if you collect the whole of air course in Nigeria in terms of population and for urban resources, we are more than the rest of the world. So really, we have to deal with sympathy. There is a problem of strong cultural influence on the quality. Otherwise, how can you? Luckily, I did geography in school. If you look at the map, you see the volume of Mali. Now, the people in the Sahel, from Mauritania to Central Africa Refabric, are moving southwards. Southwards towards the coast. Why? Because of weather problem. If the rainy season fails, people just go hungry, automatically. So people are pushing southwards, where there is rain throughout there, where they can try and grow food and survive. And then animals, again from Senegal, Central Africa Refabric, there are people with cattle going across countries and creating really problems between the settled farmers and the cattle realists. So we have the problem of underdevelopment and cultural problem, which I think the United States is well represented in every country, no matter how small. And I believe they know that the cultural problem we are facing in underdeveloped countries is so enormous. And we insist on making mistakes. We don't seem to learn from saying, OK, my neighbor overthrew the government. What did he get out of it? More people were killed. More people were taken off the farm. They are for less productive. They are for less food. We seem to refuse to learn from that. As I told you, our own personal experience, which we went through in Nigeria, cool counter cool, civil war, cool counter cool. So it's a set of development. Mr. President, you mentioned two words that are heard around the world these days with some alarm, climate change. Obviously, climate change contributes to migration, contributes to the desertification loss of agricultural land. And equally, it can contribute to conflict as well. I'd like to ask, what Nigeria is doing to work to build up its resilience to climate change? What is it doing to adapt to the changes in climate? I noticed just in the last two months, Nigeria suffered from unprecedented flooding in Yobay and a couple of other of the states in the Northeast. How is Nigeria working to build resilience and adaptation to climate change as it hits your country? It's an enforceable task, let me put it that way. I've not been pessimistic about anything because you can't control your population in a underdeveloped country like Nigeria. You could keep on producing. But there is a limit the land can take. For example, if I say we inherited our farm, which may be about 50 hectares, when we are only seven of us, when we grow to become 30 and we have grown the same land, we have got a problem. And I think there is a need for investment in agriculture, in technology, so that seeds, we can get improved seeds that can do within a shorter time with less rainfall. I think that is the biggest health the technologically advanced countries in the United States can do for us to improve. Because you cover so much of the weather that you can help us to do that. But it is extremely difficult for us to improve on that. Because as I told you, and then the animals, especially in most of the agricultural area of the country in Nigeria, there are people with cattle. And there is this cattle reirors and stagnant farmers problem, generation after generation. The efforts made, say, by the fast republic leadership is much more realistic than what follows. In terms of routes where the cattle riders are guided through the route, grazing areas and control. For example, Aubrey said not more than three, four months ago, two governors of states from the south came and reported the cattle reirors to me. Because they knew I was also a time a cattle reiror or something. They came and reported them to me. I said, when they were going on campaign, did they go and speak to them? They said, yes. I said, after I get in their boats, go and solve their problem. I sent them away, of course, without telling them anything. So really, we have the problem of culture. That's the movement of cattle reirors, stagnant farmers, and large population. Nigeria has really a problem on that. Mr. President, we are running out of time. I want to thank you enormously for your time and for your commitment to democracy and to a stronger relationship between the United States and Nigeria. Many of us recognize the importance of Nigeria and what it stands for, not only on the continent, but as a member of the global community. For many of us, we see Nigeria as the most populous country in Africa, the strongest and largest economy on the continent, the largest producer of petroleum on the continent, but for all Americans and for all those who believe in inclusive governance, you are the largest democracy on the continent. And that ties Nigeria to the United States in the most meaningful of ways. Countries that are democratic resolve all of their differences through discussion and not through combat, they generally work together effectively as partners. And I hope that your commitment to democracy and your commitment to ensuring that the elections in February will be free, fair, and transparent give you a legacy which all of Nigerians should be proud and for which all of us who believe in democracy should support. So we appreciate you being here. We recognize that this has been a busy week, but for us it's a capstone. You were here in 2015 to usher in your democratic governance over the last eight years. We're proud to have you back as you look at transferring power in February. So thank you, Mr. President, for being with us. We appreciate you. Thank you.