President Muhammadu Buhari urged the World Bank to prioritise its developmental programmes across the northern parts of Nigeria, the bank’s President Jim Yong Kim said on Thursday.

At a press briefing on the sidelines of the ongoing World Bank-IMF annual meetings in Washington, D.C., Mr. Kim said his organisation has largely complied with Mr. Buhari’s request, but also experienced some challenges in the process.

“In my very first meeting with President Buhari he said specifically that he would like us to shift our focus to the northern regions of Nigeria and we’ve done that,” said Mr. Kim, who has led the World Bank since 2012.

“Now, it has been very difficult. The work there has been very, very difficult,” he added.

Mr. Kim was responding to a Nigerian reporter’s question on how the bank has supported Nigeria’s northeast, plagued by the Boko Haram insurgency.

A transcript of Mr. Kim’s press briefing was published by the World Bank on Thursday.

Presidential spokespersons, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, did not immediately respond to PREMIUM TIMES requests on whether the presidency had clarifications about the exchanges between Messrs. Buhari and Kim.

Details of Mr. Buhari’s first meeting referenced by Mr. Kim could not be immediately retrieved. But the comments could bolster Mr. Buhari’s critics, who accuse the president of being sectional.

In 2015, Mr. Buhari was ridiculed for telling a live audience during a visit to Washington that the regions that overwhelmingly voted for him should expect more from his government than the one that did not.


“The constituents, for example, gave me 97% [of the vote] cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%,” Mr. Buhari said when he was asked about his administration’s policy of inclusiveness at the United States Institute of Peace July 22, 2015.

Bokoharam and insurgency will still destroy it all

..... OP no source, or are you the journalist that wrote this story

Nepotist per excellence. Divider in Chief of the federation. Develop your home while the south gets the short end of the stick.. was that how previous leaders were doing it before u came?

,

Zenithpeak:
Bokoharam and insurgency will still destroy it all

you no get joy

mightyhazel:
Nepotist per excellence. Divider in Chief of the federation. Develop your home while the south gets the short end of the stick.. was that how previous leaders were doing it before u came?

Ike guru my fellow Nigerian. This Baba ha.te is to obvious.

Almost 3yrs news

Is this supposed to be News??

I'm not surprised




We move

WINNERMENTALITY:
Almost 3yrs news

He is yet to give counter order

Shut up. Agent of division
You always look for anything to tanish the good image of our dear President

Shut up. Agent of division
You always look for anything to tanish the good image of our dear President

Things gotten easily are usually not appreciated.......you can send all Nigerian resources to the North.......they will still burn, bomb and destroy it because it was ill gotten.