US President commends Buhari for fighting "massive corruption" in Nigeria

dimeji akinloye

April 30, 2018 9:45 PM

Trump said the progress Buhari has made in the fight against corruption will attract more investors from the US.

United States President

Trump stated this when both leaders were addressing a press conference after their meeting in the White House.

"Nigeria has a reputation for very massive corruption. I also know that the President (Buhari) has been able to cut that down very substantially. We talked about that, he is working on it and they have made a lot of progress and I think they will continue to make a lot of progress," Trump said.

The US President said with the progress the Buhari administration is making in the corruption, investors from the US would want to do business in Nigeria.

"We have a lot of people in this country that invests in Nigeria, so cutting down on that corruption element and a corrupt element is very important to us and the President (Buhari) will be able to do that," he added.

Anti-Boko Haram fight

Trump also hailed Buhari for making progress in the fight against terrorism, and pledged the continued support of the US in that regard.

When asked if both leaders discussed Trump's alleged statement early this year that African nations are "shitholes", Buhari and the US President said it was not discussed.

According to Buhari, he was not sure about the accuracy of the media report, so there was no point talking about it.

"I am very careful with what the press says about others and myself. I am not sure about the validity or whether that allegation against the President (Trump) was true or not. So, the best thing for me is to keep quiet," Buhari said.

Trump confirmed that the issue was not discussed. He, however, noted that there are some countries that are in "very bad shape and (are) very tough places to live in."

"We didn’t discuss it because the President (Buhari) knows me and he knows where I am coming from and I appreciate that," Trump said.

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Buhari was accompanied to the White House by Nigeria's Ambassador to the U.S. Sylvanus Nsofor, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Trade and Investment, and Governors of Plateau and Ogun.

Others on the delegation were Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, Senate Committee Chair on Foreign Affairs, Monsurat Sunmonu and her House of Representatives counterpart, Nnenna Ukejie.

dimeji akinloye