By Daniel Kanu (With -Press Release)
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday mocked President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance at the meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump as embarrassing claiming that he failed to project the economic interests of Nigeria before the American government and the world.
A press statement issued by the opposition party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan, said it was alarming that “President Buhari buckled in bilateral negotiation and failed to address the issue of the drop in the U.S. purchase of our crude oil, which is the main stay of our economy.”
“Nigerians and the business community were aghast when President Buhari could not market our crude oil to his American counterpart even when in the course of question and answer session, a leeway was provided for him, he offhandedly declared that he cannot “tell America what to do”.
“Also President Buhari had no answers to President Trump’s stance that the U.S. 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.
“More disturbing is the revelation by President Trump that the U.S. 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 $500 million.
“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.
PDP said the trip only afforded photo-ops for President Buhari in the White House while President Trump was committed to marketing the U.S. to Nigeria, the most populous black nation on earth.
