As Cost Of Buhari’s US Trip

Says Cost Hugely Over Exaggerated

By Niyi Adeyi – The Presidency has refuted the

media reports claiming an estimated N2.2 Billion

as the total cost of President Muhammadu

Buhari’s recent trip to United States (US).

The rebuttal which was contained in a release

issued Wednesday by Buhari’s Senior Assistant

on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the

Presidency held that it was very sad that, in this

age of free-flowing information and era of

change, a media organization would constitute

itself 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.

“In point of fact, the total amount expended on

the trip by the Office of the President amounted

to nothing near ten per cent of the speculated

figure” Garba asserted.

The statement added that owing to the free

accommodation provided by the host

government, all the personal staff who

accompanied the President on the trip received

reduced allowances, adding that President

Buhari’s son, Yusuf, received neither allowances

nor estacode, while the “five Governors on the

trip each paid his own way.”

“Permanent Secretaries who traveled on the

delegation did so in accordance with extant rules

and none of them exceeded their estacode

entitlements.

“Apart from the Nigerian Pilot’s mischievous

mathematics, it is shortsighted and misleading

of the newspaper to have claimed that President

Buhari’s trip to the U.S. achieved nothing.

“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.

“Some of the more immediate benefits of the

President’s trip to the U.S 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 health sector and another $5 billion

investment from the US in our country’s power

sector” the Presidency contended.

Still on benefits of the trip, the release said the

embargo on the sales of weapons to Nigeria

was in the process of being removed, hitting

“Only those rabidly determined to find faults

unnecessarily will cook up falsehood in a futile

effort to rake up murk where none exists”.