Reacting shortly after the joint briefing by both leaders, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Monday bemoaned the performance of the Nigerian president during the meeting with his U.S. counterpart, describing it as embarrassing and disturbing.
The party lamented that Buhari completely failed to project the economic interests of the country before the American government and the world.
A statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan said it was alarming that Buhari buckled during the bilateral negotiations and failed to address the issue of the drop in U.S. purchase of Nigeria’s crude oil, saying it is the main stay of the Nigerian economy.
“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 the question and answer session, a leeway was provided for him, he off-handedly declared that he cannot ‘tell America what to do’,†the party said.
PDP also said that Buhari had no answers to Trump’s stance that the U.S. had not been investing substantially in Nigeria owing to the unconducive economic climate under his administration, further confirming the stand of the PDP that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was running a moribund economy.
More disturbing, PDP noted, was the revelation by Trump that the U.S. has been supporting Nigeria with the sum of $1 billion annually whereas Buhari, in his script, announced that Nigeria received only $500 million 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 $500 million.
“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 on its failure to ensure security of lives and property of Nigerian 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 U.S. to the most populous black nation,†the PDP said.
