Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Barack Obama met on Tuesday to hold bilateral discussions that centred on global terrorism and international refugee crises.
Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, elected President of Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, on May 29th, 2015, told his American counterpart, Barack Obama that his country could make do with more international support in order to trump the insurgency in the Niger-Delta oil rich part of the country and the latest Boko Haram Islamic campaign in the North-Eastern part of the country. He said: “We are making definite progress on how many factions of the militant groups exist, their leadership and operational basis, and we have equally sought the cooperation of the oil majors. In a short while, I believe the issues would be resolved.”
Nigeria has fought the Boko Haram militants for close to five years, with thousands of fatalities and resultant 2.5million internally displaced persons. President Buhari said that Nigeria’s neighbours in the Lake Chad Basin alone carries the burden of close to six hundred thousand refugees.
As the leaders of the two strategic nations met on the sidelines of the 71st United Nations General Assembly, Buhari assured that the African regional power was determined to meet its home and oversees commitments even as it grapples with its share of global economic crunch.
The American president, making his eighth and last appearance at the UN acknowledged the importance of Nigeria in the comity of nations and that it was that realization that encouraged the United States to give measured support to Nigeria, so that it defeats terrorism. Mr. Obama praised Buhari for the determined war against corruption.
As usual, he failed to take note of the rising criticisms against what opposition politicians in Nigeria described as the lopsided application of the arrests and trials of corrupt officials. He, however, promised the support of his country in the area of agriculture, and the economy so as to assist the country to bail out of recession, even as he would soon pass on the baton of leadership.
America announced a grant of over $37m to Nigeria to assist in mitigating its debilitating Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) crisis last August.