President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to the country, following his official visit to the United States. The
President arrived in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday,
days after he left the country to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Earlier,
the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, had
announced on Twitter that President Buhari would be back in the country
later in the day.
The President’s arrival was, however, delayed due to “a technical stopover” he had in London on his way back to Nigeria.
The
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr
Garba Shehu, had told Channels Television that the President travelled
in a smaller aircraft.
He explained that the flight crew
travelling with President Buhari decided to break the long journey to
refuel and do the routine checks, adding that the procedure was normal.
President
Buhari, who had arrived in the U.S. on Sunday, visited the Blair House
at Washington D.C. and held a bilateral meeting with President Trump on
Monday at the White House.
During the meeting, President Buhari
had blamed the killings in some parts of Nigeria by suspected herdsmen
on armed men from Libya.
He noted that although the herdsmen
crisis has been an age-long challenge in Nigeria, they do not carry guns
but only wield sticks and occasionally machetes.
“The Nigerian
herders don’t carry anything more than a stick and, occasionally, a
machete to cut down foliage and give it to their animals, these ones are
carrying AK-47. So, people should not underrate what happened in Libya.
43 years of Gaddafi, people were recruited from the Sahel and trained
to shoot and kill,” Buhari had told Trump.
Both leaders, after
the meeting, had addressed a press conference where President Trump
commended the effort of the Nigerian leader in fighting corruption and
terrorism in Africa’s most populous nation.
“Nigeria has a
reputation for very massive corruption. I also know that the President
(Buhari) has been able to cut that down very substantially. We talked
about that, he is working on it and they have made a lot of progress and
I think they will continue to make a lot of progress,” Trump had said.
