Nigeria has a massive corruption
problem, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday while receiving
President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House.
But the U.S. will continue to offer its support for Nigeria to proffer a lasting solution to the menace.
“Nigeria
has massive reputation for corruption,” Mr Trump said while standing by
Mr Buhari. “I discussed it with the president and we agreed to do
something on it.”
“We are working to cut” the corruption cases down, Mr Trump added.
Mr
Buhari did not object to the observation, which he had repeatedly
acknowledged publicly himself, and instead showed appreciation for the
support of the U.S.
Asked whether he was offended by Mr Trump’s
alleged denigration of African countries in the past, Mr Buhari said he
was skeptical about the media reports and would rather not comment on
them.
“I am being careful about what the press says about others
and myself. But the best thing for me to do is to keep quiet,” Mr Buhari
said.
Mr Buhari said his government had done a lot to curb human
rights abuses in Nigeria, especially in the ongoing war against Boko
Haram.
“The government of Nigeria remains committed to human right,” even in the course of fighting terrorism, Mr Buhari said.
Mr
Buhari said he had no problem with the presence of American troops in
Nigeria, saying they are only in his country to offer training and other
support that are crucial to winning the war against terrorism.
“This
is one of the best thing the United States could do for our country,”
Mr Buhari said when asked whether he was concerned about the police role
being played by America across the world.
Mr Trump said Mr
Buhari’s comments were fair, but added that he would want to see America
scale back its supervisory role across the world while improving trade
with other countries.
“We wanna police our country. What we want to do now is to open Nigeria and other countries to trade,” he said.
On
the concerns about low patronage of Nigerian crude by the U.S. in
recent years, Mr Buhari said he would not tell another country what to
do. He praised the U.S. for its technological innovations that have
helped reduce its reliance on oil.
