An estimated N2.7 trillion ($13.6 billion) worth of direct
investment is part of the immediate benefits accruing from President Muhammadu
Buhari’s recent state visit to the United States, the Presidency claimed
yesterday.
The presidency also affirmed that the visit cost the
Nigerian treasury less than N220 million contrary to assertions in some
sections of the media. It further explained that President Buhari’s son, Yusuf,
did not receive any estacode for the trip even as it contended that great
savings were made by members of the delegation against previous visits.
The five governors who were in the delegation, the
presidency said, paid their way while permanent secretaries and other senior
government officials only received their entitlements.
File: US President Barack Obama speaks with Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White
House in Washington, DC, July 20, 2015. Obama welcomes Nigeria’s freshly
elected president after the country’s first ever democratic transition. AFP
The presidency’s explanations followed news reports in some
sections of the media that the visit was wasteful, cost N2.2 billion and was
not in anyway beneficial.
In a statement, yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said besides the economic
benefits, plans were already in motion to lift hindrances to the flow of
military support for Nigeria’s war against insurgents in the North-East.
Some immediate benefits
According to him, “some of the more immediate benefits of
the President’s trip to the US include: the proposed $2.1 billion fund from the
World Bank for the re-development of the northeast battered by Boko Haram; $5
billion from US investors in Nigeria’s agriculture sector; $1.5 billion
investment in the Nigerian’s health sector; and another $5 billion investment
from the US in our country’s power sector.
“Also, as things stand, the embargo on weapons sales to
Nigeria is in the process of being removed. The trip to the US by President
Buhari was definitely very successful and beneficial to Nigeria. Only those
rabidly determined to find faults unnecessarily will cook up falsehood in a
futile effort to rake up murk where none exists.
“It is very sad that in this age of free-flowing information
and in this era of change, a media organisation would make itself available as
a vehicle to peddle a lie of such low and ignominious quality.
“Contrary to the newspaper’s assertions, the total cost of
the trip to the Nigerian taxpayer was at the most minimal, in line with the
policy of this administration to cut waste and extravagance.
Buhari’s son didn’t receive estacode, govs paid their way
“In point of fact, the total amount expended on the trip by
the office of the President amounted to nothing near 10 per cent of the
speculated figure.
“Owing to the free accommodation provided by the host
government, all the personal staff who accompanied the President on the trip
received reduced allowances.
“His son, Yusuf, received neither allowances nor estacode.
The five governors on the trip each paid their way. Permanent Secretaries who
travelled on the delegation did so in accordance with extant rules and none of
them exceeded their estacode entitlements.
“Apart from the Nigerian pilot’s mischievous mathematics, it
is shortsighted and misleading of the newspaper to have claimed that President
Buhari’s trip to the US achieved nothing.
“Nigerian-US relations had suffered severely over the past
few years. That relationship has now been reset. The benefits of this symbiotic
relationship will become more and more evident as the Buhari administration
continues to tackle the challenges of corruption, security and the economy.
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