May’s Visits: Buhari Failed To Draw Economic Dividends
BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Less than 24hours after the official visit of the British Prime Minister, Theresa May to Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has described as most unfortunate and completely unpatriotic of President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to think of ways to draw economic dividends from the important state visits, stressing that he is more interested in using them to secure international endorsements for his selfish re-election bid.
This is just as the PDP lamented President Buhari’s inability to productively engage her thereby directly bungling the nation’s opportunity to draw maximum economic dividends from her visit before she left the shores of Nigeria.
The opposition party equally expressed deep concerns that President Buhari could not even assemble a competent economic team to engage the British leader and also failed to consider it expedient to muster a team for strategic engagement with German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who is billed to commence a state visit to the country.
A statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said Nigerians all saw a British Prime Minister who was favourably disposed to a healthy and productive engagement on critical areas of our economy and how President Buhari and his officials, out of sheer incompetence, failed to seize the opportunity for the benefit of our nation.
According to him; “Instead, the Buhari Presidency was more interested in photo-ops and diplomatic niceties, perhaps to score cheap political points, indicative of how our Presidency has diminished in the last three years.
“The robust and very fruitful engagement the British leader later had with Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, shows how low, the standard of national leadership has fallen in our country under the Buhari Presidency.”
Towards this end, the PDP urged the Buhari Presidency to stop being a cog in the wheel of progress for the nation, adding that Buhari should immediately end his government’s lethargy and seek help in setting up a team comprising of very competent and knowledgeable hands to interface with the German Chancellor and her team so that Nigeria will benefit from her visit.
The opposition Party also cautioned President Buhari not to seek to use the visit of the German leader for another lame attempt at international endorsement, which has continued to elude him, while attracting embarrassing backlashes to the nation.
“Moreover, such is no longer useful for him, as Nigerians and the international community have already reached a consensus that our dear nation needs a more competent and resourceful President, who has respect for rule of law and the overall interest of the people,” PDP stressed.
