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When Buzzfeed Also Questioned Buhari's Murky Reasons For Being In London... - Politics - Nairaland

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When Buzzfeed Also Questioned Buhari's Murky Reasons For Being In London... by Bre(f): 3:13am On Mar 02, 2015
Culled from a Buzzfeed article that I was surprised to see there...


Nigeria is gearing up for a tight presidential poll in four weeks’ time. But opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari has been in London for the past week and he won’t say much about why.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and biggest economy, faces its tightest presidential race ever on March 28. In one corner, there’s the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, under fire for graft scandals and for failing to quell the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
In the other, there’s Buhari, an ascetic former military dictator who ruled Nigeria in 1983-5, a stint best known for a crackdown on corruption and rule-breaking dubbed the “War Against Indiscipline.” He has since run unsuccessfully for president three times.

Buhari’s campaign team says he has met two former British prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, while in town. But they won’t say what was discussed at the meetings, nor what other meetings he had during over one week in London.

Blair’s office confirmed to BuzzFeed News he had a private meeting with Buhari in London on Feb. 21, but declined to comment further. Brown’s office did not respond to repeated requests for confirmation.
Buhari has not used any foreign public relations or political consulting firms to set up this trip, Lai Mohammed, the spokesperson for Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) party, told BuzzFeed News. The U.S. political consulting firm founded by former Obama message guru David Axelrod has done stints working for the APC as recently as December.
Both Axelrod and the firm also currently work for the U.K.’s opposition Labour party, which Blair and Brown both belonged to when they were prime minister.

Buhari’s campaign team has given slightly different reasons for the trip at different times. At first, they presented it as a working visit to schmooze with “global institutions.”

However, later in the week, Buhari himself and the same campaign team official said the trip was primarily a private holiday to get a rest from campaigning in Nigeria, with a few official engagements thrown in.
“I have to come away from Nigeria to get some relative peace. That is what brought me here,” Buhari told reporters on Thursday, after giving a speech at the London think-tank Chatham House. He pointed to the sudden six-week delay to Nigeria’s election as giving him time to take a break.

The challenge to that long rein has helped lead to the increasingly intense and ragged mud-slinging between the two political camps. This might even account for the furtive nature of Buhari’s trip.
“The politics in Nigeria is getting very dirty. So many people are keeping this [trip] close to their chest,” said Bimbo Roberts Folayan, the chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the UK, who added that his association would normally be kept in the loop if a presidential candidate was in town.

On another note, has anyone got any links to Buhari's talk in Chatham House? I am curious to hear what he was yarning, who knows, I may learn something about his manifesto...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/shyamanthaasokan/nigerias-opposition-candidate-is-hanging-out-in-london-and-i#.qkgk27vR4

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Re: When Buzzfeed Also Questioned Buhari's Murky Reasons For Being In London... by nzeadachie: 4:34am On Mar 02, 2015
BUHARI IS ON HIS HOSPITAL BED YOU PEOPLE SHOULD STOP DECEIVING US, MOREOVER BUHARI THE CHIEF JIHADIST CAN NEVER RULE NIGERIA
Re: When Buzzfeed Also Questioned Buhari's Murky Reasons For Being In London... by Keegan: 5:30am On Mar 02, 2015
nzeadachie:
BUHARI IS ON HIS HOSPITAL BED YOU PEOPLE SHOULD STOP DECEIVING US, MOREOVER BUHARI THE CHIEF JIHADIST CAN NEVER RULE NIGERIA

Your headache!
Re: When Buzzfeed Also Questioned Buhari's Murky Reasons For Being In London... by menesheh(m): 5:57am On Mar 02, 2015
Unless there was a tip off of danger him being in nigeria



But i dout
Re: When Buzzfeed Also Questioned Buhari's Murky Reasons For Being In London... by Bre(f): 11:28pm On Mar 02, 2015
I doubt his life is at risk...

But what's really good with the Chatham House talk? Aren't there any transcripts or recordings?
Re: When Buzzfeed Also Questioned Buhari's Murky Reasons For Being In London... by Nobody: 11:32pm On Mar 02, 2015
Only a fool will wanna kill and old man as old as 73 years old. Almost at d tail end of his lifetime on earth. I don't pray he dies, buh death can come anytime soon.

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