President Muhammadu Buhari said his meeting with U.S.
President Donald Trump yielded positive results in economy, security and
anti-corruption. Buhari, announced this during a joint press conference by
Buhari and Trump after a one-day official working visit to the White House.
The Nigerian president lauded the shared history of
close and cordial relations between the two counties, saying it encompasses
political, economic, military, social and cultural cooperation.
He said: “Our two countries maintain a strategic
partnership for peace and security, conflict resolution as well as the global
fight against terrorism. “We also share common features as secular federal
states, practicing a similar democratic model of governance and committed to
the universal values of fundamental human rights and freedoms, free enterprise,
social justice and the rule of law. “President Trump and his team and myself
and the Nigerian team discussed issues related to security, trade, governance,
human rights and humanitarian crises.” He recognised the strong U.S. support in
Nigeria’s fight against terrorism and also appreciated very much the U.S.
agreement to sell 12 Super Tucano A-29 war planes and weapons to Nigeria to
effectively fight terrorism. ‘
“We expressed gratitude for U. S. support in the
reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the North East of Nigeria, as well
as humanitarian assistance to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), through
agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
and other international partners. “The USA has been to date the biggest
contributor to the humanitarian response and last year gave approximately 500
million U.S. Dollars in cash and in-kind contributions through the United
Nations and other inter-governmental organisations. “These have mainly
supported protection activities, health, food assistance and shelter. We are
doing all we can to secure the release of the remaining abducted school girls
from Dapchi and Chibok. “In this context, we will continue to welcome U.S.
collaboration in intelligence gathering, hostage negotiations and
information-sharing,” Buhari said. On violent attacks by herdsmen, Buhari said
the government was taking necessary steps to promote the peaceful co-existence
of herdsmen and farmers, by focusing on boosting security and enforcing
legislation that will guarantee herders and farmers access to land. On economy,
he said Nigeria very much welcomed increased US investment in the Nigerian
economy, especially in the non-oil sector. Buhari said: “Nigeria’s trade
volume with the United States stood at 6.07 billion dollars, according to 2016
statistics and comprised 4.176 billion dollars worth of Nigerian exports to the
U.S. and 1.894 billion dollars U.S. exports to Nigeria. We urged greater effort
to increase these figures substantially.” He thanked the U.S. government very
much for the cooperation Nigeria had received in its effort to recover stolen
funds. “Our two governments have put the machinery in place for their
respective Attorneys-General to collaborate in ensuring the return to Nigeria
of over 500 million dollars of looted funds siphoned away in banks around the
world. “In this connection, we congratulated the US government on launching a
Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative which was spearheaded by the U.S.
Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering. “We hope that we
could continue to count on U.S. support in this area,” he said.
Meeting with Trump is sweet, yields results on economy, security, anti-corruption – Buhari
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Monday, April 30, 2018
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