Nigeria, July 14 -- For Nigeria, the US Department of State's Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Frank Garcia's first official trip to Africa is worth watching closely. His planned visits to Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Mali say a great deal about how the Trump administration wants to work with West Africa. It signals working less by preaching, more by bargaining; less by broad aid language, more by security, trade and sovereign partnership.

The selection of these three countries is not random. Nigeria is the anchor. Cote d'Ivoire is the rising stable partner. Mali is the hardest test of whether the United States can speak about sovereignty in a way that is real, not rhetorical.

Mr Garcia's own testimony points in that dire...