The State House has described as misconstrued, the various interpretations of President Muhammadu Buhari’s comments in an interview granted to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper on February 5, 2016.

In a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday, February 9, Malam Garba Shehu (Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity) noted that the wave of negative reactions to the President’s remarks about the reputation of Nigerians abroad was as a result of an incomplete understanding of President Buhari’s point.

“President Buhari was asked about the flood of migrants from Nigeria and the fraudulent applications for asylum put in by people desperate to leave their motherland at any cost, and it was this question that elicited his response,” he said, encouraging Nigerians to avail themselves of a full text of the interview, which has now been made available on the Telegraph’s website.


Malam Shehu added that it was preposterous for anyone to imagine that the President of Nigeria would describe all the citizens of the country he leads as criminals, when he himself is a Nigerian–obviously not a criminal–and when there are many Nigerians of honest living making their country proud all over the world.

ree also Nigerians giving their country a bad image abroad, and it is to those Nigerians that the President referred in his comments,” he said, adding that people may play politics and online games with the President’s comments, but the fact of the matter remains that Nigeria’s reputation abroad has been severely damaged by her own citizens.

“These Nigerians who leave their country to go and make mischief on foreign shores have given the rest of us a bad reputation that we daily struggle to overcome.”


Malam Shehu called attention to the many efforts of President Buhari to clean up the image of Nigeria, such as the war on corruption, stating that acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to preferring a solution.

“President Buhari is very aware of the problems the people of Nigeria face both at home and abroad, and he is not shying away from admitting them even as he focuses on solutions to bring them to a permanent end.”

Malam Garba Shehu (Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity) noted that the wave of negative reactions to the President’s remarks about the reputation of Nigerians abroad was as a result of an incomplete understanding of President Buhari’s point.

otil1:
See damage control

Tooo poor

Read further below:

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Vacation

Presidents need many vacations for their jobs are very tough. If you knew how two young men Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama aged in four years and then four more years you will see how challenging the job can be. A 73-year old Buhari will need to catch his breath much more often than Clinton and Obama. Both had 2 months’ vacation in every year of their services. One in summer (usually in Massachusetts Martha’s Vineyard) and winter in Hawaii. Nobody should begrudge PMB of his well-earned vacation.

But why would a Nigerian president not spend his vacation in Nigeria? Why must he spend it abroad? This is where we show that we do not like what we have at home and do nothing to make what is abroad available to us in Nigeria. When we get sick we go abroad, we want education for our kids we go abroad and we get a vacation time we go abroad. 

This is a shame.

A country that is foreign exchange starved cannot afford to have her president and his entourage spend their vacation times and foreign exchange abroad. I had thought that PMB was opposed to foreign junkets while a candidate but he seems to have become his own foreign secretary and now spends his vacation abroad. SS has very many wonderful resorts in Obudu Cattle ranch, and Calabar is a very holiday friendly place. Enugu has Nike Lake resort and there is the old Jankara Game Reserve. Or why did the president not go back to his village in Katsina and play checkers/draft with his old buddies? These would make him live as Nigerians live and make him feel like ordinary Nigerians.

I have lived in USA for a little while. Over these years I am yet to read of a foreign head of state spending his vacation in US. Why do we snub our things, always searching for things abroad? Would other Nigerian who want to enjoy their vacations abroad get the foreign exchange to do so or is PMB above the law?

God save Nigeria
 
Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
Boston, Massachusetts
February 9, 2016

otil1:
See damage control

Tooo poor

Read further below:

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Vacation

Presidents need many vacations for their jobs are very tough. If you knew how two young men Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama aged in four years and then four more years you will see how challenging the job can be. A 73-year old Buhari will need to catch his breath much more often than Clinton and Obama. Both had 2 months’ vacation in every year of their services. One in summer (usually in Massachusetts Martha’s Vineyard) and winter in Hawaii. Nobody should begrudge PMB of his well-earned vacation.

But why would a Nigerian president not spend his vacation in Nigeria? Why must he spend it abroad? This is where we show that we do not like what we have at home and do nothing to make what is abroad available to us in Nigeria. When we get sick we go abroad, we want education for our kids we go abroad and we get a vacation time we go abroad. 

This is a shame.

A country that is foreign exchange starved cannot afford to have her president and his entourage spend their vacation times and foreign exchange abroad. I had thought that PMB was opposed to foreign junkets while a candidate but he seems to have become his own foreign secretary and now spends his vacation abroad. SS has very many wonderful resorts in Obudu Cattle ranch, and Calabar is a very holiday friendly place. Enugu has Nike Lake resort and there is the old Jankara Game Reserve. Or why did the president not go back to his village in Katsina and play checkers/draft with his old buddies? These would make him live as Nigerians live and make him feel like ordinary Nigerians.

I have lived in USA for a little while. Over these years I am yet to read of a foreign head of state spending his vacation in US. Why do we snub our things, always searching for things abroad? Would other Nigerian who want to enjoy their vacations abroad get the foreign exchange to do so or is PMB above the law?

God save Nigeria
 
Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
Boston, Massachusetts
February 9, 2016

eagleeye2:

I am tired of always "misunderstanding" the president. Mr Garba Shehu, when will Nigerians ever understand your Principal?

otil1:
See damage control

Tooo poor

Read further below:

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Vacation

Presidents need many vacations for their jobs are very tough. If you knew how two young men Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama aged in four years and then four more years you will see how challenging the job can be. A 73-year old Buhari will need to catch his breath much more often than Clinton and Obama. Both had 2 months’ vacation in every year of their services. One in summer (usually in Massachusetts Martha’s Vineyard) and winter in Hawaii. Nobody should begrudge PMB of his well-earned vacation.

But why would a Nigerian president not spend his vacation in Nigeria? Why must he spend it abroad? This is where we show that we do not like what we have at home and do nothing to make what is abroad available to us in Nigeria. When we get sick we go abroad, we want education for our kids we go abroad and we get a vacation time we go abroad. 

This is a shame.

A country that is foreign exchange starved cannot afford to have her president and his entourage spend their vacation times and foreign exchange abroad. I had thought that PMB was opposed to foreign junkets while a candidate but he seems to have become his own foreign secretary and now spends his vacation abroad. SS has very many wonderful resorts in Obudu Cattle ranch, and Calabar is a very holiday friendly place. Enugu has Nike Lake resort and there is the old Jankara Game Reserve. Or why did the president not go back to his village in Katsina and play checkers/draft with his old buddies? These would make him live as Nigerians live and make him feel like ordinary Nigerians.

I have lived in USA for a little while. Over these years I am yet to read of a foreign head of state spending his vacation in US. Why do we snub our things, always searching for things abroad? Would other Nigerian who want to enjoy their vacations abroad get the foreign exchange to do so or is PMB above the law?

God save Nigeria
 
Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
Boston, Massachusetts
February 9, 2016

lamzybaby:



http://nigerianpilot.com/presidency-reacts-to-brouhaha-over-telegraph-interview/