Buhari’s Foreign Trips Have Started Yielding Fruits – Lai Mohammed

President Muhammadu Buhari’s foreign trips since assuming
office are critical to the implementation of his administration key policies of
enhancing security, jump-starting the economy, creating jobs and fighting
corruption, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has
said.

In a statement issued on Friday in Abuja, the Minister said
all the trips have been anything but frivolous, and that they have started
yielding fruits in terms of turning the tide in the fight against the
insurgents who have been most active in the North-east, attracting investments
in the range of billions of dollars, and securing global support for the
administration’s anti-corruption fight.

”Nigerians, whether in the ruling or the opposition parties,
have a right to ask questions about the activities of their President, but it
is absolutely important that they do so from an informed, rather than partisan
or sensational, standpoint,” he said.

The Minister explained that most of the President’s trips –
to Nigeria’s neighbouring countries of Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, as well
as to Germany, the US, France and the UN – were devoted to rallying regional
and global support for the war against terrorism

”He was in Germany at the invitation of the G7 to solicit
support from the Industrialized Nations for the war against terrorism. No one
who has witnessed the killings and maiming in the past seven years by Boko
Haram will call such trips frivolous. After all, the security and welfare of
the citizens are the reason for the existence of any government.

”The President’s visit to South Africa was to attend the
regular summit of the African Union; the trip to Ghana was aimed at fostering
better relations with a brotherly country; the trip to India was for the
India-Africa summit that provided the opportunity to explore ways of enhancing
Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from Indian investors, while the trip to Iran
was to attend the forum of Gas Exporting Countries, a veritable platform for
discussing how to better harness Nigeria’s abundant gas resources for
industrial/domestic consumption

and export, at a time of dwindling oil prices.

”The President also travelled to Malta to attend the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, from where he travelled to Paris for
the UN Conference on Climate Change. The President’s second trip to South
Africa since assuming office is for the China-Africa forum. On the few

occasions that the President has embarked on a State Visit,
he has tied that to an agenda that will further the quest for support for the
war against terror and the efforts to enhance FDIs, thus stimulating economic
growth and creating jobs,”the Minister said.

He said that apart from rallying global support for the
country’s wars on terror and graft or seeking foreign investments, it is
important that Nigeria leverages President Buhari’s brand, a high integrity
quotient and an embodiment of committed and dedicated leadership, to further
Nigeria’s relevance and visibility on the global stage.

”President Buhari is well respected on the global stage for
his high integrity, his transparency, his patriotism and his purposeful
leadership. It is important to leverage this respect in such a way that Nigeria
can become a major player, either in the realms of economy or global
diplomacy,” the Minister said.

He said the President had embarked on the trips under a very
stringent budget, cutting his delegations to numbers far below what his  predecessors used to travel with, while even
the trimmed entourage had received reduced allowances on the occasions that the
host governments have provided accommodation and feeding.

Vanguard