President Donald Trump of United States has reportedly described President Muhammadu Buhari as “lifeless.” The U.S. president, after his meeting with President Buhari in April, was reported to have told his aides that he never wanted to meet someone lifeless. Financial Times, a global acclaimed business newspaper, stated this in its recent publication. But the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described President Trump’s comments as hate speech. It described Buhari as a ‘fit and lively president.’
The group insists that President Buhari is fit and capable to run for the 2019 elections. On his part, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told New Telegraph that President Trump openly commended President Buhari and lauded his leadership qualities during his visit to Washington DC. However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that President Buhari has opened Nigeria to international ridicule by the statement credited to Trump. Also, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) said Trump’s statement was an affirmation of the widely held belief that Nigeria is running on autopilot. Buhari and Trump met at the White House on April 30.
Both leaders discussed issues bordering on fighting terrorism and economic growth in Nigeria and Africa. Trump, who is set to host President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, according to Financial Times, in an article titled: ‘Africa looks for something new out of Trump,’ claimed that the U.S. leader described Buhari, whom he met officially in April, as ‘so lifeless.’ The business newspaper added that Trump warned his aides that he never wanted to meet someone ‘so lifeless’ again.
The report said: “The first meeting with Nigeria’s ailing 75-year-old Muhammadu Buhari in April ended with the U.S. president telling aides he never wanted to meet someone so lifeless again, according to the people familiar with the matter.” New Telegraph recalls that President Trump, at a press briefing during the visit, praised Buhari and his administration.
Trump, who had also commended the president’s effort in tackling corruption and insurgency in the country, then called Nigeria one of the most beautiful places on earth, adding that he would love to visit someday. The minister told New Telegraph that the comment credited to Trump is of no significance.
His words: “I am not convinced that President Trump actually said so because we live in the age of fake news. “However, in the very unlikely event that that statement was actually made by President Trump, it is actually of no significance to us because the same President Trump publicly endorsed the leadership of President Buhari and commended him.
“So, whatever else he says behind him is of no significance; it’s of no importance. If a president publicly told the world and commended him; we all saw it on CNN and NTA when he commended him and extolled his leadership qualities and then go behind to say another thing, it is of no absolute importance.”
BMO, in a statement by Niyi Akinsiju and Cassidy Maduekwe, its chairman and secretary respectively, said President Buhari will oversee the affairs of the country for four more years. The group noted that this was not the first time the U.S. president was heard to make such derogatory remarks at world leaders. BMO said it was not surprised and that President Buhari would not be distracted by such. “We are aware that President Trump’s disrespect for world leaders is not new; his comments on Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, calling him ‘meek and mild’; his reference to Germany’s leader, Angela Merkel’s actions as ‘insane’, or his outlandish Tweet at the UK’s Theresa May, and more recently, the alleged remarks he made after meeting President Buhari.
“It is indeed not the first time President Trump would be heard to lower the standards of respect for his colleagues on the world stage. We are not surprised; we know that this age-long character of the U.S. president would not change anytime soon. But, it is important that we put it on record that President Buhari remains fit and sprightly, even for the next decade. “We recall that during President Buhari’s visit to Trump in the White House, the U.S. president commended the successes that the Buhari administration had recorded, especially in the fight against insurgency and the war on corruption.
“The U.S. president was full of admiration for Nigeria’s president during the visit, thus such outlandish remarks as reported by the Financial Times are not just to be taken with a pinch of salt, but are untrue in themselves,” the statement added. The group further said that President Buhari has continued to show fitness and capacity to run the country post-2019. BMO said that though the president’s 800-metre walk, where he acknowledged the cheers of members of his constituency, was not intended at showboating, it was an unscripted reference point that further proves a fit and lively president.
The group said that President Buhari would not be distracted by this report, whether it was indeed said or, in fact, unsaid. The president, accord-ing to the group, would, in his character, continue to remain focused on his mandate to deliver on his promises to the Nigerian people. However, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP said that “such embarrassment is a backlash a nation gets when incompetent leaders, out of inferiority complex, resort to jumping around the world, desperately shopping for endorsement from world leaders.
The party said President Buhari has been seeking international recognitions that are not predicated on any achievements from his three years in office. It called on President Buhari to take a cue from the comments ascribed to President Trump by settling down at home and discharge his responsibilities to Nigerians or humbly accept his failings.
According to the statement, “Had President Buhari not cheapened the exalted office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by his woeful outing during his visit to the United States, President Trump would not have had the opportunity to assess his level of incompetence and make such an embarrassing statement about our president.” PDP added that wellmeaning Nigerians are now worried about how other world leaders have been perceiving their president “who has not only failed in governance, but has continued to de-market our nation in the international community.”
While expressing strong reservations on Trump’s comment, PDP called for urgent reactions from the Nigerian Presidency and the U.S. White House over the matter. CUPP, in a statement by its first National Publicity Secretary, Ikenga Ugochinyere, noted that Trump’s verdict was a wake-up call for Nigerians to collect their permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) to enable them elect a new president in 2019.
“If President Trump took only one meeting to identify the huge problem we have been harping upon, then the world needs to pity Nigerians who have been bearing with a ‘lifeless’ president for over three years.
“Nigeria today is worse on economic indices than we were in 2015 and the national cohesion and peace accentuated by the seamless concession of victory by former President Goodluck Jonathan has been lost on the altar of nepotism, cronyism and ethnic supremacy being exhibited by President Buhari,” the CUPP added. It noted that Trump was not referring to Buhari’s age, because he too was a septuagenarian, but rather to President Buhari’s alleged incompetence in national and international issues.
.new telegraph
