The United States says the 2019 general elections in Nigeria and a peaceful transition in government remains its major priority due to the strategic position the country occupies in Africa.

The US Department of State made the disclosure in New York during a background briefing on the first trip of Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson to Africa.

Mr. Tillerson is expected to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and other top government functionaries as well as leaders of Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya during his visit to Africa scheduled between March 6 to 13.

“However, now we had over two dozen African countries with democratically elected governments and which are hopefully not going to have transitions in governments through coup d’etats and other illegal methods.

“As we look at the 20 elections, obviously Nigeria, though it’s not this year – it’s going to be next year – that really is a major priority focus, because that’s going to be the third most populous country in the world by 2050.

“And that’s an area that we really are focusing on how to do a peaceful transition, a democratic transition, but more important is how to hold governments accountable to the people,” the US State Department said.

While commending the recent peaceful elections and transition in Liberia, the US Department added that a lot of African countries still had fragile democracies that the United States government was still trying to strengthen.