President Mohammed Buhari yesterday said he was put on the spot by Trump when he was alone with him, added that the American leader accused him of killing Christians, OBSERVERS TIMES report
He said the question startled him but he put his emotion under control.
The president, who deviated from his closing speech, said he was the only African leader from less developed countries that was invited by Trump at the time.
Buhari asked his cabinet members how they would feel if they were the ones put on the spot and confronted with such a grave allegation, adding that he told Trump that the conflicts were caused by successive Nigerian leaders who tampered with established grazing routes.
According to him, only Nigerian leaders in the First Republic kept grazing routes while subsequent ones encroached on them.
“I believe I was about the only African among the less developed countries the President of United States invited, and when I was in his office, only myself and himself. Only God is my witness. He looked at me in the face. He said ‘why are you killing Christians?’
“I wonder if you were the person how you will react. I hope what I was feeling inside did not betray my emotion. So, I told him that the problem between the cattle rearers and stagnant farmers I know is older than me not to talk of him (Trump). I think I am a couple of years older than him.
“With climate change and population growth and the culture of the cattle rearers, if you have 50 cows and they eat grass, any route to your water point, they will follow it, it doesn’t matter whose farm it was.
“The First Republic set of leadership was the most responsible leadership we ever had. I asked the Minister of Agriculture to get a gazette of the early 60s, which delineated the cattle routes where they used meagre resources then to put earth dams, windmills even sanitary department.
“So, any cattle rearer that allowed his cattle to go to somebody’s farm is arrested, taken before the court, the farmer is called to submit his bill and if he can’t pay, the cattle are sold. But subsequent leaders, VVIPs (very very important persons); they encroached on the cattle routes, they took over the cattle rearing areas.
“So, I tried and explained to him this has got nothing to do with ethnicity or religion. It is a cultural thing, which the respective leadership was failing the nation,” he said.
In his own speech, the SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said presentations from the retreat had shown that the team had the potential to transform the country and improve the living standard of the people.
According to him, independent assessment of the performance of mandates assigned to ministers from inception reveals five major issues.
“The need to review and reprioritise the interventions in the ministerial mandates to meet the new emerging socio-economic environment and deliver on presidential priorities.
“The need for Key Performance Indicators and annual targets that smartly define the success of interventions in each priority area for improved performance assessment going forward.
“The need for inter-agency collaboration to drive delivery and synergy among implementing MDAs.
“The need to accelerate the implementation of the Economic Sustainability Plan in order to respond to the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic; and
“Adequacy and timeliness of fund releases to execute projects and programmes of the ministerial mandates,” he added.
Mustapha stated that the retreat had established the necessity for ministers and agencies under them to collaborate with one another “to strengthen inter-agency collaboration to drive delivery and synergy among implementing MDAs.”
He said his office would activate the delivery unit spoken about by the president “to ensure regular interface with ministers and ensure bilateral engagements are sustained between the desk officers and technical teams of MDAs on key performance indicators (KPIs) for tracking and selection of priority initiatives to deliver the probable pathway to achieving the nine priority areas.”
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also said the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had not only worsened poverty in the country, but had also distorted the economy and increased the level of hardship among Nigerians.
He reiterated the president’s order that ministers and heads of agencies should implement the N2.3 trillion stimulus package meant to cushion the effect of the economic crisis on the people, noting that the administration does not have the luxury of time.
According to a statement by his media aide, Mr. Laolu Akande, Osinbajo said: “We are already in day 67 since the plan. Nothing is going to happen by magic, we have to simply do this stuff.
“We have to ensure that we have the money and ensure that day by day, we are measuring our achievements and trying to ensure that we do the things that we need to do. And we simply are not favoured by time, every single day the poverty situation and the economic distortions deepen.”