On behalf of President Bush, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today led a presidential delegation to the second inauguration of President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja, Nigeria.

The following individuals accompanied Sec. Paige: the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Howard Franklin Jeter; U.S. Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.); Jendayi Frazer, special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs; and Commissioner W. Todd Bassett, national commander of the Salvation Army.

During the trip, Sec. Paige and the delegation attended the incoming president's inaugural ceremony in Abuja. The delegation also visited an HIV/AIDS prevention project, sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, in nearby Nyanya. Earlier this week, President Bush signed into law H.R. 1298, the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003, which launches an emergency effort that will provide $15 billion over the next five years to fight AIDS abroad. In a bill signing ceremony, attended by leaders of African and Caribbean nations, President Bush called the law "the largest, single up-front commitment in history for an international public health initiative involving a specific disease."

After President Obasanjo's inauguration, the U.S. delegation attended President Obasanjo's inaugural banquet at the Abuja International Conference Center.

Prior to returning to the United States on Friday, Secretary Paige and the U.S. officials will meet personally with President Obasanjo at the presidential villa, known as the Aso Rock Villa.

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