Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson to visit Africa later this month

BY JULIE WHITE

Appearing on a conservative radio talk show on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson announced his plans to visit Africa for a week, starting on December 27. “I think a lot of our policy in the future is going to affect Africa,” the retired neurosurgeon said on the popular Hugh Hewitt radio. Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia are the three planned stops on Dr. Carson’s itinerary.

The Republican contender justified the choice of these three countries by saying: “because my ancestors are from the Kenya-Tanzania region, the Turkana tribe.” But he also broke down the choice: “To Nigeria, I want to get an idea from the people what the effects of Boko Haram are, what people are thinking, to see what the economic situation is there, and also there’s a medical school there named after me which I want to visit,” he said. As for Zambia, Carson said: “because the twins, the Banda twins are there. We separated them. They were joined at the top of the head facing in opposite directions almost 18 years ago, and this is the year they graduate from high school.”

The planned visit is viewed by many as the Republican candidate’s attempt to improve his standing in opinion polls of Republican voters, and justifiably so, since the candidate himself recently admitted on national television that his numbers, which were once nearly as high as those of front-runner Donald Trump’s in some areas, had decreased because of his lack of foreign policy experience. The visit comes after Dr. Carson’s trip to Jordan last month during which he met with Syrian refugees.

Dr. Carson stressed the significance of the visit by saying it “makes a difference,” adding: “I think we need to make decisions based on real information as opposed to filtered information.”