Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Featured on TVC Satellite News Discussing Obama Visit to East Africa
This interview with Abayomi Azikiwe covers aspects of the trip by United States President Barack Obama to Kenya and Ethiopia in East Africa. The trip was the first one to Kenya since Obama was elected to office in 2008 even though his father was born there.

To watch this interview over TVC satellite news network just click on the website below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8dFIXFu8Ww&feature=share

Moreover, this was the first visit of any sitting U.S. president to Kenya and Ethiopia. Obama addressed the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa on July 28.

Azikiwe responded to questions about the significance of the trip and what would Obama's legacy actually amount to in the U.S. and internationally. Speaking factually, Azikiwe reported that within the U.S., African Americans were worse off under Obama than they had been before. Citing escalating racial tensions and the recent death in detention of Sandra Bland, Azikiwe emphasized that the African American people were still not fully liberated even under a Black head-of-state.

In response to a question about whether this visit represented a growing influence for Africa in the U.S., Azikiwe noted that the relationship has always been important. From a negative perspective he said the Atlantic Slave Trade and African labor built the U.S. and the world industrial capitalist system, and that these facts have been well documented by historians for decades.

The Pan-African News Wire editor pointed out that even though Obama opened a U.S.-backed conference on business, the actual volume of trade between America and Africa had decreased by 40 percent since 2011. He noted that the People's Republic of China was now the number one trading partner with the continent.

Noting that the major focus of Washington's foreign policy towards Africa was militaristic through the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), people wanted more substantive relations beyond the rhetoric enunciated by the chief spokesperson for world imperialism.

Abayomi Azikiwe is featured weekly over TVC news, a satellite worldwide news network based in Lagos, Nigeria, where he comments on various issues involving African and international affairs.

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