TVC E, POLITICS – The Federal Executive Council has used Wednesday’s Federal Cabinet meeting to reviewing President Muhammadu Buhari’s trips abroad between late last year and early this year and its attendant benefits for Nigeria
Briefing Statehouse Correspondents after the meeting, the Ministers of Environment and Information said the trips are helping to reposition Nigeria favourably in the international Community
The myriad of trips undertaken by President Muhammadu Buhari is beginning to raise concern among Nigerians and is providing ammunition to critics of his administration to take potshots at him
Public opinion was enough to ginger the federal Executive Council to dedicate this week’s meeting to critically examining the benefits of the international meets President Buhari has been involved in from late last year to date
Such trips as the UN Summit on Climate change, the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta, the meeting of Gas exporting Countries in Iran, among others, were brought to the table and the consensus of the Federal Cabinet is that the Presidents foreign shuttle has brought a lot of advantages to the country
It was a hard sell to Statehouse Correspondents who failed to see why a Federal cabinet meeting would be dedicated to reviewing the President’s foreign visits that had been long reported in the media
Information Minister taking questions in his stride, explained that it was important to convince Nigerians that the President had in his trips shored up confidence of the global community in Nigeria which had been eroded by the twin evils of corruption and terrorism
He further explained that President Buhari had been able to present Nigeria’s position on climate change especially the fact that the shrinking Lake Chad was one of the remote causes of terrorism in the country
Explaining further, Environment Minister noted that not enough foreign direct investments had been coming into the country because of some apprehension by the international community that their investments would not be safe
She believes that it has taken President Buhari’s presence to engender a lot of agreements that is bringing back investments into the country
But it will take more than these accolades by the President’s men to convince Nigerians that the President’s trips have yielded fruit
Rather Nigerians still look forward to a drastic turn around in the country’s economy and in their fortunes as evidence of the change they voted for
