Penultimate week, President Muhammadu Buhari
graciously left the country for the United States (US) – Washington D.C
precisely – to meet with his counterpart in the US, Mr. Donald Trump in
response of an invitation from the latter.
The
bilateral meeting, which held between Monday, 30th April and
Tuesday, 1st May, 2018, witnessed several talks pertaining to
humanitarian aid, security, corruption and business. It’s noteworthy that the
3-day outing marked the first visit by an African president to the White House
since the emergence of Mr. Trump as the US President.
President
Buhari, who went in the company of some sitting governors and other top
government functionaries, was opportune to meet with a group of business
executives domiciled in the US.
During
the meeting, President Trump frowned over the ongoing wanton killings of the
members of the Christendom in the most populous and popular black nation,
particularly the one that took place recently in Benue State where about
seventeen worshippers and two Catholic priests were gruesomely murdered by
suspected herdsmen, hence urged his guest to expedite action towards ending
such an ungodly act.
It’s needless to assert that the
reaction of the US President over the lingering herdsmen quagmire implies that
the global community had been bitter concerning the bad omen. This, thus, sends
a strong message that the acclaimed giant of Africa could not repel mere
‘herders’ from ravaging every facet of the country.
In another development as regards
terrorism, Mr. Trump assured President Buhari of continuous support of his
government targeted to eradicate the Boko Haram crisis. Hence, the two leaders
reached an agreement for continue supply of military equipment to tackle the
societal menace. The hosting leader equally promised that the Tucano fighter helicopters
to be released for the terrorism fight shall be followed up with adequate
training and other assistance.
On corruption, having appreciated Buhari
for his administration’s determined effort to alleviate the high level of
corrupt practices in Nigeria, Trump pledged to assist the Nigerian government
in returning the huge amount of money – reportedly worth more than $500 million
– siphoned out of the country and lodged in various banks across the world.
Considering that till date Nigerians are
yet to realize what the recovered $252 million loot of the past military head
of state Late Sani Abacha was used for, the people expected Trump to enquire
from Buhari – in a lighter mood though – how the money would be utilized if
eventually returned to Nigeria. The citizenry are apparently gradually becoming
sceptical of many things, hence the need for such proposed enquiry.
Business
discussions weren’t left out during the epochal meeting. A lot of American
investors used the occasion to disclose their readiness to partner with Nigeria
in such areas as aviation, agriculture, and railway, among others. One of them
spoke on their determination to attract about two-billion-dollar investment to
Nigeria to help in revamping the country’s railway system towards ensuring it’s
used for both cargo and human transport.
On its part, John Deere – a US company
that majors in tractors –disclosed the firm’s plan to be supplying the said
equipment to Nigeria and assembling them herein with the aim of resuscitating
the country’s agricultural sector that has turned sour. The firm would also
train, employ people as well as help the agric value chain in terms of
mechanization and automation, among others.
It’s not anymore news that the present
administration led by Pres. Buhari came on board with the mantra to overhaul
the Nigeria’s agric sector. But, at the moment, it’s mind-boggling to observe
that our teeming commercial farmers are still into the usual crude pattern of
farming. It’s, therefore, pertinent to say that if properly followed up, the
Buhari’s visit to the US would afterwards usher in the long awaited mechanized system
of farming in the country.
However, something intriguing occurred on the
day of the departure of Pres. Buhari after the bilateral talks. Mr. President,
having left the US Joint Base Andrews Airport in his ‘Eagle One’ aircraft on
Tuesday, 1st May 2018 and officially headed for Abuja, surprisingly
landed in London, the United Kingdom without any prior official report in that
regard.
Nigerians were eventually informed in the
early hours of Thursday by the president’s media aide, Mallam Garba Shehu that
the boss was observing a ‘technical stopover’ in London, which according to him,
was attributed to the fact that the big aircraft in the President’s Air Fleet
was currently under repairs.
He said “it has been taken for major
repairs, so the President is using a small plane and there is a limit to the
distance the small plane can cover.” If one may ask; wasn’t it a shame to tell
the world that the number one citizen of a country was on a technical stopover
for a whole two days?
Though
Pres. Buhari later arrived the country successfully at about 10:30pm on
Thursday, it’s worthy of note that the 2-day suspense his concerned subjects
were kept was enough to insinuate that the stopover had undertones of pranks.
Think about it!
Comrade Fred Nwaozor
National Coordinator, Right Thinkers
________________________
Twitter: @mediambassador
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