President Muhammadu Buhari said his
meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump yielded positive results in areas of
the economy, security and anti-corruption.
The President announced this during a joint press conference
by him and Trump after a one-day official working visit to the White House.
Buhari lauded the shared history of close and cordial relations
between the two countries, saying it encompasses political, economic, military,
social and cultural cooperation.
He said “Our two countries maintain a strategic partnership
for peace and security, conflict resolution as well as the global fight against
terrorism.
“We also share common features as secular federal states, practicing
a similar democratic model of governance and committed to the universal values
of fundamental human rights and freedoms, free enterprise, social justice and
the rule of law.
“President Trump and his team and myself and the Nigerian
team discussed issues related to security, trade, governance, human rights and
humanitarian crises.”
Buhari recognised the strong U.S. support in Nigeria’s fight
against terrorism, while he also appreciated the U.S. agreement to sell 12
Super Tucano A-29 war planes and weapons to Nigeria to effectively fight
terrorism.
He added “We expressed gratitude for U. S. support in the
reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the North East of Nigeria, as well
as humanitarian assistance to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), through
agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
and other international partners.
“The USA has been to date the biggest contributor to the
humanitarian response and last year gave approximately 500 million U.S. Dollars
in cash and in-kind contributions through the United Nations and other
inter-governmental organisations.
“These have mainly supported protection activities, health,
food assistance and shelter. We are doing all we can to secure the release of
the remaining abducted school girls from Dapchi and Chibok.
“In this context, we will continue to welcome U.S. collaboration
in intelligence gathering, hostage negotiations and information-sharing.”
On violent attacks by herdsmen, the Nigerian President said
the government was taking necessary steps to promote the peaceful co-existence
of herdsmen and farmers, by focusing on boosting security and enforcing
legislation that will guarantee herders and farmers access to land.
Speaking on the economy, he said Nigeria very much welcomed
increased US investment in the Nigerian economy, especially in the non-oil
sector.
He said “Nigeria’s trade volume with the United States
stood at 6.07 billion dollars, according to 2016 statistics and comprised 4.176
billion dollars worth of Nigerian exports to the U.S. and 1.894 billion dollars
U.S. exports to Nigeria. We urged greater effort to increase these figures
substantially.”
Buhari thanked the U.S. government for the cooperation
Nigeria had received in its effort to recover stolen funds.
He added “Our two governments have put the machinery in
place for their respective Attorneys-General to collaborate in ensuring the
return to Nigeria of over 500 million dollars of looted funds siphoned away in
banks around the world.
“In this connection, we congratulated the US government on
launching a Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative which was spearheaded by the
U.S. Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering.
“We hope that we could continue to count on U.S.
support in this area.”
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