₦airaland Forum

US President, Donald Trump, has
remained silent over the phone
conversation he reportedly had with
President Muhammadu Buhari of
Nigeria(http://
dailypost.ng/2017/02/13/trump-told- buhari-phone-presidency/) on Monday. The US government has not reported
the conversation on its website or
mentioned it on any of their official
social media accounts like @USAgov,
@WhiteHouse, etc.
Trump, who is notorious for his use of
Twitter, has also not tweeted about it
either from his personal
account@realDonaldTrump or the
official account @POTUS. He, however, tweeted about the visit
of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justine
Trudeau from his personal account. Even the United States Diplomatic
Mission in Nigeria, has failed to
acknowledge the phone conversation
via@USEmbassyAbuja. However, the official accounts of the
president of Nigeria, @NGRPresident;
the government of Nigeria, @AsoRock;
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey
Onyeama, @GeoffreyOnyeama and
more than five media aides of Buhari (Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu, Tolu
Ogunlesi, Bashir Ahmad and Lauretta
Onochie) have all spoken about it.

The South African presidency said in a
statement: 16:56 President Jacob Zuma and
President Donald Trump of the
United States of America held a
telephone conversation this
afternoon, 13 February 2017 at
the request of President Trump. President Zuma congratulated
President Trump on his election
as the 45th president of the
United States of America. The two presidents reaffirmed
their commitment to
strengthening the already strong
bilateral relations between the
two countries. There are six
hundred US companies in South Africa and strong trade relations
between the two countries. The two Presidents also discussed
the need to work together on
multilateral issues as well
especially the quest for peace and
stability on the African
continent."

The phone call between Donald Trump
and Muhammadu Buhari has taken
place, the Nigerian government says. In a statement, the Nigerian presidency
said: 16:29 The conversation was cordial and
President Buhari congratulated
Trump on his election as
President of the United States,
and on his cabinet. The two leaders discussed ways
to improve cooperation in the
fight against terrorism through
provision of necessary
equipment. President Trump encouraged
President Buhari to keep up the
good work he is doing, and also
commended him for the efforts
made in rescuing 24 of the
Chibok Girls and the strides being taken by the Nigerian military. President Trump assured the
Nigerian President of US
readiness to cut a new deal in
helping Nigeria in terms of
military weapons to combat
terrorism. President Trump also invited
President Buhari to Washington
at a mutually convenient date."

According to Buhari's aide, Femi
Adesina, Trump assured the Nigerian
president that the US is ready to help
obtain "a new deal in helping Nigeria in
terms of military weapons to combat
terrorism."

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, he said he was “yet to be briefed from London”and could not therefore, confirm or deny the expected call.

Nigerians today woke up to hear of an unscheduled phone call by trump with Buhari. Sometime around today they were told by the SSA media to the government that the call has already taken place. This is their reaction

cstr75:
There is no such news on CNN or Fox. And they meticulously report on whoever the president is calling at any point in time as a matter of foreign policy.
I don't rate your foreign affairs minister or your crappy NTA with any atom of regard.

cstr75:
There was no such call to buhari or whoever in Nigeria . No mainstream media in america is carrying it like they normally do.
Don't allow useless people playing politics with the lives of poor Nigerians to fool you.
The president of the united states have better things to do with his time. He has far significant world leaders and business CEOs to call.
If Donald trump wants to make a call to Africa at all, it is probably to jacob Zuma as the globally recognized leader of the African continent.

chijiblaze:
This phone call might just be a ploy to expose the dirty tricks being played on Nigerians by the "presidency-office" and the ruling cabal.
Donald Trump doesn't take sh*t (just like he slammed the phone on the Australian prime minister)
Imagine that a politically incorrect Donald Trump discovers what's going on then announces the American people and the whole world that he's discovered that the Nigerian president is.............

Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has confirmed visiting President Muhammadu Buhari in London where the Nigerian leader is currently receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment. There has been controversy over a picture showing Mr. Amosun and the president in the United Kingdom, amid allegations an oldimage was edited to make it look recent.

However, on Monday at an event at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Mr. Amosun told journalists that he indeed visited the president in London. The event at the library was a climate change knowledge immersion workshop organised by the Federal Government inconjuction with the World Bank.

“Yes it is true I visited our president in London and he is doing fine. If you ask me pointedly whether I saw him or not, yes I did and that is the only thing that I can say. And of course you can see he is very well, he is okay. So I don’t know what else you want me to say,” Mr. Amosun said.Asked of the condition he found the president when he visited, t‎he governor said he was not in the right position to talk about his health, saying such should be left to his spokes person who were already doing that.

“I am not one of the spokespersons of Mr. President; so it will be out of place for me to talk on that. But then, they are doing their job and you’ve listened to all that they have said,” Mr. Amosun said.

Adamawa State Government has declared a two-day special prayer session for ‘ailing’ President, Muhammadu Buhari.The state governor, Mohammed Jibrilla, made the declaration on Thursday after the state executive council meeting which held at the stategovernment house in Yola, the state capital.He said, “President Muhammadu Buhari needs the prayers of all Nigerians to enable him pilot the affairs of the country effectively.“This, we have been doing even before he travelled for his vacation and we will not relent.“The state, will on Friday February 10th and Sunday February 12th offer special prayers in mosques and churches to God for the quick recovery of President Buhari who is presently in the UK on holiday and medical checkup.”Recall that the President’s 10-day vacation in the UK was extended indefinitely due to ‘health issues.’

Information Minister Lai Mohammed on Wednesday said that President Muhammadu Buhari had become a victim of his own transparency in relation to his current vacation abroad. The Minister said this while addressing State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, on the eagerness of Nigerians to know Buhari’s health status.

According to him, the President is hale and hearty and absolutely in no danger. “I can say it without any equivocation, Mr President is well, he is hale and he is hearty; no question about that. “I want to assure you, Mr President is well and he is in absolutely no danger. “Mr. President, like I said elsewhere, is probably a victim of his own transparency.

“He was going on leave, he did what the constitution said he should do, transmitted it to the National Assembly and Acting President was put in place. “And he said `while I am on leave, I am going to conduct some medical tests’ which many, or all of us do without announcing it.’

The destructive Boko Haram
insurgency group is currently plagued
by financial difficulties, the UN Under-
Secretary-General for Political Affairs,
Jeffrey Feltman, has said. Feltman stated this while briefing the
Security Council on the UN Secretary-
General’s Fourth Report on the threat
the group poses to international
peace and security efforts to “check
and roll it back” on Tuesday The UN envoy also noted that Boko
Haram was under intense military
pressure, but warned against
undermining its capacity to launch
fatal attacks. “ISIL-affiliate Boko Haram is
attempting to spread its influence
and commit terrorist acts beyond
Nigeria. “And Boko Haram remains a serious
threat, with several thousand fighters
at its disposal. “It is, however, plagued by financial
difficulties and an internal power
struggle, and has split in two
factions,” Feltman said. While the previous reports on the
subject had focused on South East
Asia, Yemen and East Africa, Libya
and Afghanistan, the fourth report
focused on Europe, North Africa and
West Africa. It noted that ISIL had conducted a
range of attacks in Europe since
declaring in 2014 its intent to target
the region. Some of these attacks were directed
and facilitated by ISIL personnel,
while others were enabled by ISIL
providing guidance or assistance or
were inspired through its
propaganda, it said. The report stated that while the
military offensive in Libya had
dislodged ISIL from its stronghold
Sirte, the group’s threat to Libya and
neighbouring countries persists. “Its fighters, estimated to range from
several hundred to 3,000, have
moved to other parts of the country. “ISIL has increased its presence in
West Africa and the Maghreb, though
the group does not control significant
amounts of territory in the region. “The reported pledge of loyalty to
ISIL by a splinter faction of Al-
Mourabitoun led by Lehbib Ould Ali
may elevate the level of the threat.” Following the increased military
pressure, Feltman said ISIL is now on
the defensive militarily in several
regions, but was also adapting to
military pressure by resorting to
covert communications such as the ‘dark web’. “Although its income and the
territory under its control are
shrinking, ISIL still appears to have
sufficient funds to continue fighting,”
he warned. Feltman noted that ISIL relies mainly
on income from extortion and
hydrocarbon exploitation, even
though resources from the latter are
on the decline. According to him, UN Member States
are concerned that ISIL will try to
expand other sources of income, such
as kidnapping for ransom, and
increase its reliance on donations. “ISIL is adapting in several ways to
military pressure, resorting to
increasingly covert communication
and recruitment methods, including
by using the ‘dark web,’ encryption
and messengers,” he warned. The report also noted some of the
measures taken by Member States
and the UN, stressing the need to
develop sustained and coordinated
responses to the grave threat posed
by ISIL and associated groups and entities. Feltman said that there were 19
universal counter-terrorism
conventions and protocols, as well as
related regional instruments on
international terrorism, and relevant
UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions. “But we need to do more, as Member
States continue to face significant
challenges to ensure effective
international cooperation,” he said. He warned that foreign terrorist
fighters leaving the conflict could
pose a grave risk to their homeland
or to the countries they are travelling
to or transiting through, such as Iraq
and Syria’s neighbours, as well as countries in the Maghreb. “Ultimately, it is the spread and
consolidation of peace, security,
development and human rights that
will most effectively deprive
terrorism of the oxygen it needs to
survive,” he concluded. (NAN)

The Middle Belt Patriotic Front has
faulted former President Goodluck
Jonathan over his recent comments at
the US Congress where he reportedly
claimed that religion was tearing the nation apart. Jonathan at the event revealed that his
administration’s political will to halt
impunity in Nigeria led to the
localisation of religious extremism in
the Northeast with occasional killings
in other zones of the North. Jonathan explained further that he also
reached out to the “Muslim Ummah in
Nigeria, His Eminence, the Sultan of
Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III,” whom he
was able to convince to “publicly
condemn Islamic extremism in Nigeria.” Speaking to journalists in Abuja,
national chairman of the forum, Bishop
Musa Fomson described the statement
by the ex-president as reckless and
unpatriotic. He said, “It was the mindlessness of his
administration that amplified the
schism to a point where persons that
were once neutral learnt to hate
adherents of other faiths. It was
Goodluck Jonathan that made religion and ethnicity into campaign issues in
order to cover the incompetence of his
rule in the quest for re-election.” He accused the former president of
sowing the seeds of division through
his, “ill advised romance with the then
President of the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor,
who even ran errand as weapons buyer, and was instrumental to
reducing Christendom into the current
level where whatever CAN has to say
is being second guessed.”

A former National Publicity Secretary
of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF,
Anthony Sani, says no force can stop
President Muhammadu Buhari in the
2019 presidential elections. He made the statement while speaking
with Leadership in Kaduna at the
weekend. According to him, if Nigerians vote a
weaker candidate against a strong
person like President Buhari, who he
believes, is serving under the toughest
situation, Nigeria will collapse. Sani, who doubles as the Spokesman of
Northern Delegates for 2014 National
Conference, pointed out that even
though Buhari had his shortcomings,
he was the best choice for Nigeria. Sani declared that Buhari will finish his
two term as most citizens of Nigeria
still prefered him than any other
person and added that the North had
no better candidate than Buhari for
now. He added, “No oil country is doing well
now all over the world. The GDP is
going down “I believe the situation we are in now, if
we choose a weaker person in 2019 as
our president against a strong person
like Buhari, Nigeria will collapse.”

Second Republic lawmaker, Junaid
Mohammed, has subtly advised the
Nigerian Senate to impeach President
Muhammadu Buhari who seems to be
“incapacitated and unable to discharge
his duties as President of Nigeria.” Reacting to the news of Buhari
extending his vacation indefinitely, the
elder statesman admonished Nigerians
to rise up against the President’s action
of keeping them in the dark on his
health status should the senate fail to impeach him.
asked the President to tell Nigerians
the truth about his health status. Recall that the President who was
billed to resume duty on Monday, following a 10-day vacation had yesterday announced the extension of his vacation, citing health issues. But the elder statesman in his reaction
claimed that a cabal had started
working to hijack the government. He urged Nigerians to be vigilant in
order to prevent the reoccurrence of
what happened during the
administration of late President, Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua, when his wife and
some politicians allegedly hijacked government.
According to Mohammed, “The
development regarding the President’s
health is a very bad indication and it is
unfortunate Nigeria has found itself in
another quagmire. It is also
unfortunate that Buhari and his handlers are trying to cause another
constitutional crisis rather than telling
Nigerians the truth. This development
is similar to that of Yar’Adua when a
cabal with the help of his wife held this
country to ransom and deceived Nigerians. “During Yar’Adua’s administration, 180
million Nigerians were taken for a ride.
The same people in the Villa under
Buhari have started towing the same
path. I believe Nigerians should rise up
against this if the Senate cannot impeach the President who now seems
to be incapacitated and unable to
discharge his duties as President of
Nigeria. “It is now seen that the cabal do not
want an end to this and that is why
they keep playing us. These are some
of the things we have seen ahead and
have been shouting that Nigerians
should be told the truth about the President’s health. I pray God saves
Nigeria but Nigerians must take their
own destiny into their hands.”

The APC Northern Musicians Forum on Friday said it would not participate in the planned protest by Nigerian music icon, Tuface Idibia, over alleged sufferings in Nigerian. The Chairman of the Forum, Haruna Ningi, who made the remark at a media briefing in Kaduna, said that the protest was different from the ideology of the forum. He, however, agreed that Nigerians were suffering, but insisted that the present administration met nearly an empty treasury and had to increase savings, to get Nigerians out of the present situation. Ningi urged Nigerians to be patient with the present administration, adding that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government would get the country out of the present difficulties. He said, “There is hunger in the land and the president is going to give us a life-saving change that our sufferings will not come back again. “But they need time for the change to come.” Ningi debunked the claim that the forum was influenced by politicians. He said, “The president has integrity and will not pay any musician to sing for him.” He said that the forum was meant to mobilise the electorate through music at the grassroots to disseminate correct and factual information on national challenges. He said, “Such songs in hard times will imbibe in the minds of common men that they have a role to play in the journey of change