SAN FRANCISCO, August 28, (THEWILL) – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says President Muhammadu Buhari has exposed the nation to international ridicule arising from reports quoting United States President, Donald Trump, as describing President Buhari as “lifeless”.
Trump had hosted President Buhari on April 30 in Washington as the two leaders discussed issues including “fighting terrorism” and other threats to peace and security.
The revelation by Financial Times came against the backdrop of current visit of Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, to the White House in Washington.
According to the article, entitled, ‘Africa looks for something new out of Trump,’ Financial Times said Trump told his aides he never wanted to meet with someone as lifeless as the Nigerian president again.
“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,” FT reported.
Reacting, the PDP said such embarrassment is a backlash 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 also said Buhari has been seeking international recognitions that are not predicated on any achievements from his three years in office.
“PDP hereby charges Mr. President to take a cue from the comments ascribed to President Trump by settling down at home and discharge his responsibilities to Nigerians or humbly accept his failings,” the party said.
“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.
“The PDP and indeed all well-meaning Nigerians are now sore worry over how other world leaders have been perceiving our President, who has not only failed in governance but has continued to demarket our nation in the international community.
“The PDP however urges Nigerians not to be downcast by the embarrassing situation the nation has found itself, especially as the 2019 general election, which comes in the next six months, offers the nation the ample opportunity to get it right on the choice of competent leadership Nigerians can be proud of.”
But the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), which reacted on behalf of the President, said he was fit, sprightly and not lifeless as it chided the American President.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is fit and capable to run for the 2019 elections and oversee the affairs of the country for four more years, President Donald Trump’s hate speech notwithstanding,” it said.
The BMO in the statement signed by Niyi Akinsiju and Cassidy Maduekwe, Chairman and Secretary respectively, noted that this was not the first time the US President was heard to have made such derogatory remarks at World leaders, adding that President Buhari would not be distracted by such.
“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.
“We recall that during President Buhari’s visit to Trump in the White House, the US President commended the successes that the Buhari administration had recorded especially in the fight against insurgency and the war on corruption.
“The US President was full of admiration for Nigeria’s President during the visit, thus such outlandish remarks as reported by Financial Times are not just to be taken with a pinch of salt but are untrue in themselves.”
