U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Nigeria today and met with the country’s two candidates for president ahead of their February 14 election:
https://twitter.com/9jafamily/status/559469634697822208
Photos: John Kerry meets Jonathan and Buhari ahead of elections, says no visa for perpetrators of violence in Nigeria http://t.co/cEz9FkIM2N
— Ameyaw Debrah #ameyawtv (@ameyaw112) January 25, 2015
RT @WashTimes: Kerry breaks protocol, flies to Nigeria to discourage election violence http://t.co/2h9GPinwtY
— WhiteHousePressCorps (@whpresscorps) January 25, 2015
Remember it was just on Friday that White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that it would be irresponsible for President Obama to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s elections as to avoid any appearance of American interference in their election.
Is Sec. Kerry meeting with both candidates really all that different? For example, in this slideshow from Yahoo! News, the majority of the pics are of Sec. Kerry meeting with Nigeria’s current president and candidate Goodluck Jonathan.
Plus, Nigeria isn’t exactly a model of a free press. Any bets on how much of the local media coverage if of Kerry meeting with Jonathan and not his opponent?
Even the photo Sec. Kerry posted of meeting both candidates, the one with him and Jonathan looks like the two are on much friendlier terms. Optics does matter:
Met with candidates President Jonathan & Major General (Retired) Buhari today in #Lagos. pic.twitter.com/v1f0lYkqJP
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) January 25, 2015
Anyway, to welcome Sec. Kerry to Nigeria, the Islamic terrorist extremist group Boko Haram attacked the towns of Maiduguri and Monguno:
Hundreds of Boko Haram gunmen on Sunday launched a pre-dawn attack to invade the city of Maiduguri
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 25, 2015
Reports of #Maiduguri airport being attacked by #BokoHaram now coming in.
— Yan St-Pierre (@MOSECON_Yan) January 25, 2015
Boko Haram attacks kill more than 200 as John Kerry arrives in Nigeria: http://t.co/Tirzlx2L8d pic.twitter.com/j1z3T3wO29
— VICE News (@vicenews) January 25, 2015
Boko Haram launched a large-scale attack on two northern cities in Nigeria just before John Kerry arrived.https://t.co/qBObUaHNxp
— Newsy (@Newsy) January 25, 2015
#Nigeria Forces Save #Maiduguri, Lose Other Town to Boko Haram http://t.co/QRtBHaaF2V
— Evelyn Tremble (@DrumChronicles) January 25, 2015
Oh, and things can get really, really worse:
https://twitter.com/blogsofwar/status/559446795755876352
Not good.
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