It is interesting how it seems only bad news trends. Hashtags are rarely created about good news.
This is more so in our country where most things are now viewed through political colours only.
‘‘Muted response“
This is the only reason for the muted response to PMB’s highly successful and symbolic American Visit.
‘Trump cannot invite a thief’
The first takeaway and the positive from the Visit is the Invitation itself. Buhari did not have to beg to visit the US. Trump invited him. Knowing Trump’s devil-may -care attitude and cocksure confidence, we can assert that Trump would not bother to invite a leader he does not believe is doing some things right. And we know a Trump belief is NOT usually based on emotions. He is well briefed.
This fact, the uniqueness of the Invitation, being the first sub Saharan African leader to be so invited, is accentuated by the fact that Trump spoke to PMB on phone shortly after his election and inauguration. During a visit to the US for the yearly UN General meeting, Trump selected some African leaders for a special dinner and singled out PMB for praise.
POTFERON meets POTUS
When the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (POTFERON) finally arrived America, we saw a POTUS (Trump) determined to help Nigeria.
Unlike his immediate predecessor, who denied Nigeria a chance to have a robust weapon stock in fighting Boko Haram, Trump seemed ready to make no excuses.
Obama it was, who used our desperate need for American weapons as a lever to attempt to impose on us the odious doctrine of same sex marriage. He did this using as unconvincing pretext, unverified allegations of human rights abuses by the Nigerian military. This at a time when BH has already been declared one of the most murderous and brutal terrorist gangs in the world, employing, routine violation of human rights as standard modus operandi, murdering in cold blood, women, children, the elderly, respecting no rights whatsoever, animal or human!
Trump Promises
At the pre-meeting press conference, Trump with his usual bluntness spoke in glowing terms about our President and made promises to help with security, recovery of loot, and bilateral economic cooperation.
Nigeria, the Beautiful
Yet another remarkable event during the Visit is the declaration by Trump that Nigeria is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Now, for those familiar with Geography, it is remarkable that Nigeria occupied a part of the tropical region that is unique. Nigeria has so many vegetation types. Whereas some countries have just one or maybe two. Nigeria is physically speaking, so variegated that almost all weather types are available, making the country look physically like a Paradise in the Sun. Different vegetation, different weather, and different crop possibilities. Some countries are mainly one weather and one vegetation, desert, or snow covered.
We are granted 12 hours of sunlight 12 months of the year.
This is something our Ministries charged with public enlightenment have neglected so far. Our country is uniquely beautiful and Trump mentioned this. Some may of course say that this is a trivial matter but it is not.
Appreciating the physical beauty and variety of our country is the beginning of Gratitude, and proof that we must preserve and enhance the beauty, and also leverage on it for positives like internal and external tourism, conservation, varieties of food crops, and utilising the flora for natural healing.
It is symbolic that of all things, Nigeria has the greatest variety of butterflies in the whole world, domiciled in Cross River. Considering the critical importance of butterflies in ecosystems (pollination), this fact is significant and symbolic. And should make us think. It’s ironic that a foreign head of government has to be the one to tell us our country is beautiful.
But I digress…
Post Meeting
After bilateral Meetings, Trump re-affirmed promises to help with our Security, specifically with confronting the murderous BOKO Haram and the brutal bandits lazily described by our pressmen as herdsmen; even when no Nigerian media house has yet done a comprehensive expose or investigation to determine the many obscure facts about the attackers. (In the mould of the program by Al Jazeera on Boko Haram)
Trump also promised increased assistance and cooperation in Loot Recovery, a bit of an embarrassment there; when bilateral discussions veer to include recoveries of proceeds of illicit looting by officials of State.
Demands
Not surprisingly, since Trump swept into office on the nationalistic slogan of America First, POTUS made some demands. He demanded more American access to the huge Nigerian market. With special accent on agricultural products. Here is wisdom. We must be careful here that America does not dump their GMO foods on our country as a counter weight to possible Chinese sanctions.
POTUS visit on the cards?
As a final gesture of goodwill and in stark contrast to Barak Obama, who refused to visit Nigeria during eight years in office, Trump said he would like to visit Nigeria sometime soon. Talk about a man loving you more than your brother.
Our summary
It is the case then that the POTFERON visited the POTUS and the results include: increased positive publicity for our country and the President; pledges on economic assurance and assistance; and endorsement of our self-chosen path for recreating a new economic order marked by anti-corruption, unrelenting pursuit and recovery of stolen state funds, plugging of loopholes and renewed attention to Agriculture and Infrastructure.
For the future, promised include: Transfer of security hardware and software; as well as support for personnel training.
There are also possibilities of collaboration in Agriculture; though with America already fallen to BIG FOOD, Where seed and food industry is commercialised, we may be best advised to be cautious about help on agricultural front. GMO goods which America exports is NOT in the best interest of our health or our Agriculture.
All in all, it was a great, mutually beneficial meeting between our POTFERON and their POTUS.
