The Presidency and the United States Embassy in Abuja have refused to
respond to a report in the Financial Times (FT) of London, where US
President Donald Trump was reported to have described President
Muhammadu Buhari as lifeless.
The Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, told THISDAY
Monday that the presidency would not react to such a comment.
Also,
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs failed to respond to THISDAY’s call and
text messages, seeking the federal government’s position on the report.
The
Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama did not pick his call or
respond to the text message sent to him. The ministry’s spokesperson,
Dr. Tope Elias-Fatile, also did not reply his text message.
The
FT while reporting the planned meeting between Trump and his Kenya’s
counterpart, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, billed for Monday, reported that Trump,
after meeting with Buhari last April, the first with any African
leader, told his aides that he never wanted to meet someone so lifeless
again.
The Monday meeting, which according to the report, is part
of efforts by the Trump administration to foster stronger ties with
Africa, it is hoped, would end US neglect of the continent.
Already, the White House said Uhuru Kenyatta’s Kenya was one of closest US security and trade partners in Africa.
“Donald
Trump will welcome Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta to the White House on Monday
for what will be only the second one-on-one meeting the US president has
held with a sub-Saharan African leader since he took office last year,”
the FT reported, adding: “The first meeting, with Nigeria’s ailing
75-year-old Muhammadu Buhari in April, ended with the US president
telling aides he never wanted to meet someone so lifeless again,
according to three people familiar with the matter.”
However,
when contacted, officials of the embassy in Abuja declined comments on
the issue. Calls to the spokesperson at the embassy, Russell Brooks,
were not answered and another staff at the embassy who pleaded anonymity
refused to also say anything.
On the Kenya’s president visit,
the report said advocates of closer US-Africa ties hope the encounter
with the much younger Kenyatta, 56, “will breathe fresh life into a
relationship with a region that Washington is seen to have neglected as
other countries, notably China, develop ever-closer trade and investment
ties with the continent”.
It added: “Africa has never been high on his radar but if the big guy likes you he’ll find a way to make things work.”
Trump
is widely criticised for not having an Africa policy. So it’s in his
interest to have something from [meeting Kenyatta] he can present as a
win.
President Fit and Lively, Says Media Organ
But
the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) Monday said the president would not
be distracted by the derogatory remarks credited to President Trump,
but will remain focused on his mandate to deliver on his promises to the
Nigerian people.
While describing Trump’s comment as
disrespectful, the Chairman of the group, Mr. Niyi Akinsiju, and
Secretary, Mr. Cassidy Maduekwe, said in a statement that whether it was
indeed said or in fact unsaid, Buhari would in his character continue
to remain focused on his mandate to deliver on his promises to the
Nigerian people.
The group said: “President Buhari is fit and
capable to run for the 2019 elections and oversee the affairs of the
country for four more years, President Trump’s hate speech
notwithstanding.”
They stressed that this was not the first time
the US President was heard to make such derogatory remarks about world
leaders, and thus Buhari would not be distracted by such.
They
said: “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.”
Commenting on the development, the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said Monday that Buhari and his handlers
had opened the nation up for international ridicule.
The National
Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement in
Abuja on Monday said such embarrassment is what 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 Buhari had been seeking international
recognitions that were not predicated on any achievements from his three
years in office.
It charged the president to take a cue from
Trump’s comment by settling down at home and discharge his
responsibilities to Nigerians and humbly accept his failure.
According
to the opposition party, “While the PDP has strong reservations on the
reported comment by President Trump, for which we demand a response from
the Buhari Presidency and the US White House, the party further holds
that had our dear President 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.”
In its comment, the
Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) said Trump’s comment was an
affirmation of the widely held beliefs that Nigeria was running on
autopilot and in danger of being thrown off the cliff by the crass
incompetence of Buhari.
The national spokesman of CUPP, Mr.
Ikenga Ugochinyere, described the statement by Trump as the last
awakening call for Nigerians to go and collect their Permanent Voter
Cards (PVCs) to enable them elect a President in 2019 who understands
what the issues are.