President Muhammadu Buhari has said that contrary to the claims by critics of his incessant foreign trips, none of the trips he had made so far can be said to be frivolous.

He said there were always political and economic justifications for his trip.

Buhari said this on Friday in London while answering questions from some Nigerian journalists shortly before he commenced a six-day vacation that would end on Wednesday.

Our correspondent obtained the transcript of the interview on Saturday.

It will be recalled that Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, had asked Buhari to stay at home and govern the country instead of junketing from one country to the other.

Fayose had said that the President’s incessant foreign trips were already bleeding the economy with about $1m being spent per trip.

But Buhari said he did not know how Fayose arrived at the figure he gave.

He said, “Every one of my trips can be politically or economically assessed. I recall that the first trip I had was to go to Chad and Niger. The trip was mainly because of Nigeria’s security.

“We campaigned based on three issues -security, economy (employment) and corruption. And then the G-7 invited me to Germany. After that, I went to Cameroon. I then went to the United Nations General Assembly.

“I have not seen any frivolous journey that I undertook. I understand that the governor of Ekiti State said that every trip I make costs Nigeria at least $1m. I do not know how he worked that out but every trip that I have made, there must be economic and political reasons that justified them.

“Those who do not see it the way the government sees it have the right not to agree and say whatever they like. But we will try and give them the appropriate reply.”

Buhari also promised to take his administration’s ongoing anti-corruption war to all sectors of the economy.

“We have to go the whole hog into other sectors because unlike what some people believe that the fight against corruption is selective, although they have failed to define the selectivity in their own understanding, there is no way we can get a public officer on record that has misappropriated public fund and we will leave him alone.

“It is one of the undertakings that the Federal Government made and we are going to see it through,” he said.

The President identified the need for......

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Fayose tthe Talkertive

If fayose figure is wrong then failbuhari what is the right figure

So buhari finally replied Fayose? He must be dancing in his closet by now.