President Muhammadu Buhari is fit, sprightly and not lifeless as alleged by the American President, Buhari Media Organisation stated.
President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, after meeting with his Nigerian counterpart, Buhari, at the White House in April, described his visitor as lifeless, according to Financial Times.
Trump had hosted Mr 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’s to the White House in Washington. Kenyatta arrived there on Saturday.
President Buhari remained the first African President to visit Trump as President of the United States.
According to an article, titled ‘Africa looks for something new out of Trump,’ Financial Times Sunday, 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.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, could not be reached for comments Monday.
But Buhari Media Organisation, BMO, which reacted on behalf of the President Monday, said: “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.”
The BMO in the statement signed by Niyi Akinsiju and Cassidy Maduekwe, its 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.
It stated: “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.
“It is indeed not the first time President Trump would be heard to lower the standards of respect for his colleagues on the World Stage. We are not surprised, we know that this age-long character of the US President would not change anytime soon. But it is important that we put it on record that President Buhari remains fit and sprightly, even for the next decade.
“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 the Financial Times are not just to be taken with a pinch of salt but are untrue in themselves.”
The group noted that President Buhari has continued to show fitness and capacity to run the country post-2019, noting that the President trekking 800 meters from the prayer ground in Daura to his house was an indication that he was fit and lively.
BMO noted further that President Buhari would not be distracted by this report but would, in his character, continue to remain focused on his mandate to deliver on his promises to Nigerians..
Reacting to the development, a Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, said the American President was right in his assertion, boasting that it would drive Buhari out of power in the 2019 poll.
The coalition, in a statement signed by its 1st National spokesman, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, said it would lead Nigerians to stop Buhari’s continued reign of incompetence and impunity in 2019.
”The verdict of the President of the United States of America Mr. Donald Trump published in Financial Times describing President Muhammadu Buhari as a lifeless leader who does not understand the issues of governance is another affirmation of the widely held beliefs that Nigeria is running on autopilot and in danger of being thrown off the cliff by the crass incompetence of Mr. President.
“The Coalition called the verdict of Mr. Trump the last awakening call for Nigerians to go and collect their PVC’s to enable them perform the patriotic duty of electing a President in 2019 who understands what the issues are.
“If President Trump took only one meeting to identify the huge problem we have been harping upon, then the world needs to pity Nigerians who have been bearing with a “lifeless” President for over three years.
“Nigeria today is worse on economic indices than we were in 2015 and the national cohesion and peace accentuated by the seamless concession of victory by former president Goodluck Jonathan has been lost on the altar of nepotism, cronyism and ethnic supremacy being exhibited by President Buhari.
“The fabrics of our nationhood has been eroded by the myopic and divisive views of the President.
“Nigerians are once again reminded that Mr. Trump is a septugenarian and was by no means referring to President Buhari’s age. He must have correctly referred to Mr. Buhari’s intellectual incapacity and his legendary incompetence in national and international issues.
“This revelation from Mr. Trump coming just a couple of days after President Buhari’s faux pas of subjecting the rule of law to the rule of man emphasises exactly the view points of President Buhari. Indeed Nigeria has returned to the dark ages where life is short and brutish,” CUPP stated.
