President Muhammadu Buhari is back in Abuja, following his official visit to the United States.
The President arrived in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, 10.30pm on Thursday five 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, which the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had already taken as an issue.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, had reportedly said 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 reiterated his position on those responsible for the killings in some parts of Nigeria as militants trained by Gaddafi in Libya who now found their way into the country.
He had said same in London and told the true position of some Nigerian youths which was twisted by those described by Presidency officials as “manipulators who twisted the President’s statement”.
But when he repeated the same comments in Washington, his host agreed with him and lauded him for being the number President in Africa and man of high integrity.
Rather, therefore, than manipulators twisting the President’s statement in Washington like they did to when he said same in Buckingham, it was his host, Trump’s statement that was misrepresented as widely reported in the local media making Trump look like taking side with Christians against Muslims the killings of innocent people in the country, which claimed casualties from both sides.
President Buhari had noted that although the herdsmen/farmers crisis has been an age-long challenge in Nigeria but that herders in the country 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.
