Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting Nigeria for talks with President Goodluck Jonathan.

The visit comes as the US is trying to counter China’s growning influence in Africa.

In a thinly-veiled swipe at the Chinese, Clinton told an audience in Senegal last week that, “America will stand up for democracy and universal human rights even when it might be easier to look the other way and keep the resources flowing.”

Todd Moss is a former State Department official who runs the The Emerging Africa Project at the Center for Global Development in Washington.