The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has written off President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance at the meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, describing as embarrassing “as he completely failed to project the economic interests of our nation before the American government and the world.”
The party said in a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan its National Publicity Secretary, in Abuja on Monday, said it was alarming that President Buhari buckled in bilateral negotiation and failed to address the issue of the drop in the US purchase of our crude oil, which is the mainstay of our economy.
The opposition party stated: “Nigerians and the business community were aghast when President Buhari could not market our crude oil to his American counterpart even when in the course of question and answer session, a leeway was provided for him, he off-handedly declared that he cannot “tell America what to do”.
“Also President Buhari had no answers to President Trump’s stance that the US has not been investing substantially in Nigeria owing to unconducive economic climate under his administration, further confirming the stand of the PDP that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is running a moribund economy.
“More disturbing is the revelation by President Trump that the US has been supporting Nigeria with the sum of $1bn annually whereas President Buhari, in his script, announced that Nigeria received only $500m last year.
“We had expected President Buhari, as the ‘African Champion on Anti-Corruption’, to immediately respond to President Trump on the whereabouts of the shortfall of $500m.
“It is also inexcusable that President Buhari had no answers to the security situation of daily bloodletting and mass killings in Nigeria, which President Trump described as “horrible”. Instead, he restricted himself to his script, which was silent on the issue. By this, the American government has summarily indicted President Buhari’s government for its failure to ensure the security of lives and property of citizens.
“On the whole, the visit surmises photo-ops of President Buhari in the White House in a bilateral session where President Trump was committed to marketing the US to the most populous black nation.”
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