The opposition Peoples Democratic Party has described as embarrassing President Muhammadu Buhari’s outing at Monday’s meeting with US President Donald Trump. Both leaders, among other issues, discussed terrorism, herdsmen and economy in the bilateral meeting. But the PDP said Buhari failed to project Nigeria’s economic interests before the American government and the world.
The party wondered why President Buhari failed to address the drop in the US purchase of crude oil from Nigeria. “Also President Buhari had no answers to President Trump’s stance that the US has not been investing substantially in Nigeria owing to unconducive economic climate under his administration, further confirming the stand of the PDP that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is running a moribund economy,” the party said in a statement.
“More disturbing is the revelation by President Trump that the US has been supporting Nigeria with the sum of $1 billion annually whereas President Buhari, in his script, announced that Nigeria received only $500 million last year. “We had expected President Buhari, as the ‘African champion on anti-corruption’ to immediately respond to President Trump on the whereabouts of the shortfall of $500m.
“It is also inexcusable that President Buhari had no answers to the security situation of daily bloodletting and mass killings in Nigeria, which President Trump described as horrible. Instead, he restricted himself to his script, which was silent on the issue. By this, the American government has summarily indicted President Buhari’s government on its failure to ensure security of lives and property of citizens.”
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