The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said foreign trips embarked upon by President Muhammadu Buhari since he assumed office over six months ago are critical to the implementation of his administration’s key policies of enhancing security, jump-starting the economy, creating jobs and fighting corruption.
In a statement issued on Friday in Abuja, by his special assistant, Mr. Mohammed said all the trips have not been frivolous as speculated, adding that they have started yielding fruits in terms of turning the tide in the fight against the insurgents who have been most active in the North-east, attracting investments in the range of billions of dollars, and securing global support for the administration’s anti-corruption fight.
He pointed out that most of President Buhari’s trips – to Nigeria’s neighbouring countries of Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, as well as to Germany, the US, France and the UN – were devoted to rallying regional and global support for the war against terrorism.
Apart from rallying global support for the country’s wars on terror and graft or seeking foreign investments, the Minister stressed that it is important that Nigeria leverages President Buhari’s brand, a high integrity quotient and an embodiment of committed and dedicated leadership, to further Nigeria’s relevance and visibility on the global stage.
He further explained that Buhari had embarked on the trips under a very stringent budget, cutting his delegations to numbers far below what his predecessors used to travel with, while even the trimmed entourage had received reduced allowances on the occasions that the host governments have provided accommodation and feeding.
