Buhari’s foreign trips not enough, says Minister

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Thursday, described President Muhammadu Buhari’s foreign trips as not enough.

Speaking at the 22nd edition of the PMB Administration’s Scorecard Series (2015-2023), he said Buhari’s engagement with other countries had brought in a lot of foreign investments to Nigeria with huge monetary value.

Onyeama said, “This has been possible because the president visits these leaders and speaks with them personally. We cannot necessarily quantify it. We only do the framework to facilitate those investments while the ministry of finance is best placed to handle the figures in terms of monetary value to Nigeria.”

Responding to a question on the president’s many foreign trips, the Minister said, “It is not true that Buhari’s foreign trips have been too many. I would disagree with that assertion. I would say it’s not even enough. You cannot imagine what he achieves with what he does with his personal interactions between him and his foreign counterparts.

“Buhari is Nigeria’s number one foreign minister and if I had my way, I would say he should even do more trips to more countries because like I said before Buhari is the best president we have had in this country.

“I’m not surprised because there’s an adage that says that a prophet is never respected in his own country. If you know the affection and the respect in which Buhari is held by other world leaders, it is breathtaking when you are present and you see that and very often they insist on him coming even when he says it is not possible for him to come.”

He said Buhari, through diplomatic engagements, secured international supports in tacking the humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram insurgency.

The Minister said with the president’s approval, his ministry was able to negotiate improved relations with the United States which led to the sale and delivery of 12 A-29 Super Tucano military aircraft and weapons to Nigeria for the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency.

“The ministry also brokered an exchange of visits between President Buhari and his Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan in 2016 and 2017, respectively, leading to the signing of several MoUs, especially the Defence Industry Cooperation of 2021.

“This enabled Nigeria to purchase from Turkey 6T-129 Attack helicopters and 6TB2 Drones to fight insurgency. A number of these visits were undertaken with purposeful results,” Onyeama said.