President's US visit pulled in N2.7trn worth of investments

The Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, has debunked claims by the opposition that President Buhari's US visit was not beneficial.

He also cleared the air on the amount spent by the federal government during the visit.

Shehu said “some of the more immediate benefits of the President’s trip to the US include: the proposed $2.1 billion fund from the World Bank for the re-development of the northeast battered by Boko Haram; $5 billion from US investors in Nigeria’s agriculture sector; $1.5 billion investment in the Nigerian’s health sector; and another $5 billion investment from the US in our country’s power sector."

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He also said “Also, as things stand, the embargo on weapons sales to Nigeria is in the process of being removed. The trip to the US by President Buhari was definitely very successful and beneficial to Nigeria. Only those rabidly determined to find faults unnecessarily will cook up falsehood in a futile effort to rake up murk where none exists."

“It is very sad that in this age of free-flowing information and in this era of change, a media organisation would make itself available as a vehicle to peddle a lie of such low and ignominious quality. Contrary to the newspaper’s assertions, the total cost of the trip to the Nigerian taxpayer was at the most minimal, in line with the policy of this administration to cut waste and extravagance."

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“In point of fact, the total amount expended on the trip by the office of the President amounted to nothing near 10 per cent of the speculated figure. Owing to the free accommodation provided by the host government, all the personal staff who accompanied the President on the trip received reduced allowances," he said

When asked if the President's son received estacodes, Shehu said “His son, Yusuf, received neither allowances nor estacode. The five governors on the trip each paid their way. Permanent Secretaries who travelled on the delegation did so in accordance with extant rules and none of them exceeded their estacode entitlements."

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Adding that “Nigerian-US relations had suffered severely over the past few years. That relationship has now been reset. The benefits of this symbiotic relationship will become more and more evident as the Buhari administration continues to tackle the challenges of corruption, security and the economy.”