*President Muhammadu Buhari’s four day trip to the United States yields many promises, but little in concrete commitments from his hosts AYORINDE OLUOKUN/ABUJA [caption id="attachment_27155" align="alignnone" width="412"] US President Barack Obama and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House on Monday[/caption] If the four day trip of President Muhammadu Buhari to the United States is to be judged by the sweet talks and commendations of the personal attributes and the bright potentials of Nigerian nation by his coterie of hosts led by President Barrack Obama, then the journey to the North American can be described as highly successful. Unarguably, the highest point of the four days trip meeting was the last Monday meeting between the Nigerian President and his American counterpart. Obama had during that meeting put on his famous charm, as he lavished praises on Buhari and Nigeria. “Nigeria is obviously one of the most important countries in the world, one of the most important countries in the African continent”, the US President said to cheers from the Nigerian team which included the governors of Nasarawa, Borno, Imo, Oyo and Edo States as well as some Nigerian government officials. The United States President also acknowledged the credibility of the election and peaceful transition which led to the emergence of the retired General as the Nigerian President about two months ago. “President Buhari came into office with a reputation for integrity and a very clear agenda that is to make sure that he brings safely security and peace to his country. He is very concerned about the spread and the violence that is taking place there and the atrocities and has a very clear agenda in defeating Boko Haram and extremists. And he has a very clear agenda with respect to rooting out the corruption that too often has held back the economic growth and prosperity of his country,” Obama said. The acknowledgement of the two fundamental areas---Boko Haram terrorism and corruption - -- which the Nigerian presidency has said it will seek the help of the United States ahead of the trip to the North American country, indicated that the guest and his hosts were thinking along the same line. The US President also affirmed that his country is ready to help Nigeria on both issues in a way that will make the country an anchor not only of prosperity and stability in the sub region and Africa, but an outstanding role model for developing countries around the world. [caption id="attachment_27194" align="alignnone" width="450"] Buhari and John Kerry in Washington[/caption] The US president added that his government “very much look forward to talking about security issues, how we can cooperate on counterterrorism. We’re looking forward to discussing how we can be helpful in addressing some of the corruption issues that have held Nigeria back, and unleashing the incredible talent of the Nigerian people.” The US President also listed other areas that his country is ready to collaborate with Nigeria to include public health issues, acknowledging that the success the country has recorded in the fight against Ebola, eradication of polio can serve as a framework and a template to tackle health issues in the continent. “We’ll have a chance to talk about issues of climate change, electrification. As many of you know, Power Africa is one of our top priorities, making sure that we’re electrifying the continent so that it can grow faster and more people have access to the power that they need. So we’ve got a busy agenda, but I want to emphasise how much I appreciate President Buhari’s work so far,” Obama said while affirming that his country was willing to stand by Nigeria as long as it remained on course, adding, “Wherever Nigeria goes, Africa goes. The continent’s destiny is tied to Nigeria’s.” Aside this, the US President also advised the President on a couple of issues, including combining military action with social and economic problems to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency. In his response, Buhari expressed gratitude to the United States for standing by Nigeria to ensure that the results of the 2015 elections were not just credible, but respected. The President noted that the visit of the US Secretary of State John Kerry to Nigeria before the elections to see the former president, the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the opposition was a positive development that saw Nigeria through the elections. “And the maintenance of pressure by United States mainly and Europe to make sure that the elections were free, fair and credible brought us to where we are today. It would have been almost impossible if the United States did not maintain the pressure on the former Nigerian government. Nigeria will remain ever grateful to President Obama and the United States for helping Nigeria to consolidate its gains on a democratic system,” said Buhari who also thanked Obama for inviting him to visit his country. Before his meeting with Obama, the President and his team were hosted to a breakfast meeting with Vice President Joe Bidden. In an opinion article published later in Washington Post the same day, Buhari had revealed that he had sought the support of the American President in locating and repatriating the over $150 billion stolen in the past 10 years. This, he said indicated the need for a paradigm shift in the way the country has been governed in the past. “The fact that I now seek Obama assistance in locating and returning $150 billion in funds stolen in the past decade and held in foreign bank accounts on behalf of former corrupt officials is a testament to how badly Nigeria has been run,” said Buhari. “This way of conducting our affairs cannot continue,” the Nigerian President said in the article in which he also announced that he will not appoint ministers until September. He attributed the delay to the need to set new ground rules in governance before the constitution of the cabinet. “In Nigeria’s case, it would neither be prudent nor serve the interest of sound government to have made these appointments immediately on my elevation to the presidency; instead, Nigeria must first put new rules of conduct and good governance in place,” said Buhari. Just like Obama, Biden had reportedly informed his guest what the US had learnt from the terror war, counselling that victory could not come through the military option alone: “Military option must be combined with strong socio-economic support programmes.” He promised that the US would work with Nigeria in that direction as well as provide assistance to rebuild the Nigerian economy while emphasizing that the problems of corruption and weak institutions must be tackled if Nigeria was to benefit from reforms. [caption id="attachment_27138" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo-Op: Buhari, Nigerian governors, Biden, Obama[/caption] The US Vice President also advised the President to ensure that those appointed to manage the key sectors of the economy are seasoned technocrats to enhance the prospect of attracting investors into Nigeria. The Nigerian President asked for the help of US in tackling oil theft, which he put the annual estimated losses at between $10 billion and $20 billion, stressing that such income could have been deployed with the salutary impact on various spheres of national life like education and healthcare, among others. Both countries pledged their renewed commitment to work as partners at the meeting. Buhari also participated in a media chat with the US Secretary of Commerce, US Secretary of State, John Kerry, US Attorney General, Secretary of Treasury and a group of potential investors during the trip. The President met with World Bank President, Jim Yong-Kim, where a $2.1 billion loan was announced for the rebuilding of Boko Haram ravaged north east states. The World Bank package announced at a meeting between President Buhari and representatives of the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization, WHO will also be redeployed for the resettlement of persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. On its part, the WHO is also to invest $300 million on immunization against malaria in Nigeria, while the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will collaborate with Dangote Foundation to ensure that the country maintains its zero polio case record of the past one year. Another important highpoint of the trip in terms of unveiling to Nigerians and the world the plans of the Buhari administration was during a meeting with Nigerians in the Diaspora held at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington. President Buhari had in answer to a question during the meeting announced that his government was examining some documents in its possession which indicted some officials of the Jonathan administration in illegal sale and diversion of crude oil monies belonging to the Federal Government to multiple private accounts abroad. “We are now looking for evidences of shipping some of our crude, their destinations and where and which accounts they were paid and in which country. “We have started getting documents where some of the senior people in government, former ministers, some of them had as much as five accounts and were moving about one million barrels per day on their own. We have started getting those documents. Whichever documents we are able to get and subsequently trace the sale of the crude or transfer of money from Ministries, Departments, Central Bank”, he said. He emphasized that his administration will ask for the cooperation of countries where the funds from the stolen crude oil are domiciled to return the monies to federation accounts. “We will use those documents to arrest those people and prosecute them. This, I promise Nigerians,” Buhari said. The Nigerian leader expressed his displeasure at the way the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had been mismanaged over the years, affirming that his administration would check the excesses of the corporation. [caption id="attachment_27321" align="alignnone" width="500"] President Muhammadu Buhari with his sense of humour gets his audience cracking at the meeting with Nigerians at the Nigerian embassy in Washington[/caption] He said his administration was carefully studying the issue of oil subsidy. On whether he will remove subsidy from petroleum products, the President said he will need to do more study on the issue as any knee jerk reaction may send prices of other commodities through the roof to the discomfort of poor Nigerians. “When people ask you to remove subsidy ask them to define it. Who is subsidizing who? Let me make it clear. The people are gleefully saying ‘remove subsidy’. They want petrol to cost N500 per litre. If you are working and subsidy is removed, you can’t control transport, you can’t control market women, the cost of food, the cost of transport,” said Buhari. He added that there would have been no problem if Nigerian refineries are working. “If Nigeria was not an oil producing country – all well and good. Our refineries are not working. We have a lot of work to do.” He also dismissed insinuation that his administration is being too slow in taking crucial decisions relating to governance and appointment of political office holders. “In some quarters they are now calling me `Baba Go Slow’. I’m going to go slow and steady,’’ the President declared. At a speech he delivered at the USA Institute of Peace, Buhari raised alarm that the dogmatic application of the Leahy Law by the United States is denying Nigeria the much needed weapons to battle Boko Haram. The law forbids the United States from selling weapons to countries abusing human rights, a constant accusation against Nigerian armed forces prosecuting the Boko Haram war since 2009. “The blanket application of the Leahy Law by the United States on the grounds of unproven allegations of human rights violations levelled against our forces has denied us access to appropriate strategic weapons to prosecute the war against the insurgents,” Buhari said at a session moderated by former Secretary of state for African Affairs, Ambassador Johnnie Carson. According to him, the Nigerian military has remained largely impotent in responding to insurgency activities of Boko Haram like abduction of innocent school girls from their hostels, indiscriminate bombings of civilians in markets and places of worship because of lack of appropriate weapons and technology which they could have had, had the so called human rights violations not been an obstacle. ”Unwittingly, and I dare say, unintentionally, the application of the Leahy law amendment by the U. S. Government has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorist group in the prosecution of its extremist ideology and hate, the indiscriminate killings and maiming of civilians, in raping of women and girls, and in their other heinous crimes. The President therefore strongly appealed to both the Executive Arm and the US Congress to examine how the US Government can provide Nigeria with far more substantial counter-terrorism assistance with minimal strings. “The longer we delay, the deadlier the Boko Haram gets. At all events, we have re-written the rules of engagement protecting the rights of combatants and in particular safeguarding civilians in theatres of conflict,” Buhari said. So, what benefit will the four day trip to the US bring to Nigeria, especially as regards the most important twin issues of the Boko Haram insurgency and corruption? There have been unconfirmed reports that the US may have changed its stands on sale of weapons to Nigeria, including the much sought after Apache helicopter. But this hope became doubtful, with Buhari himself railing at the obstacle posed by the Leahy law. The man who inspired the law, Senator Patrick Leahy also dabbled into the arms supply no-deal, when he urged President Buhari to direct his anger, not at the law but Nigeria's military, which has been caught red-handed on many occasions violating the rights of people in the most reckless manner. Leahy even said some sections of the Nigerian military are filled with 'rapists and murderers'. “It is well documented by the State Department and by respected human rights organizations that Nigerian army personnel have, for many years, engaged in a pattern and practice of gross violations of human rights against the Nigerian people and others, including summary executions of prisoners, indiscriminate attacks against civilians, torture, forced disappearances and rape.”, said Leahy in a post on his website. But Senator Leahy was also quick to offer President Buhari some sops of sort, when he highlighted other collaborations between Nigeria and the US military: “President Buhari ignores the undisputed fact that most Nigerian army units have been approved, under the Leahy Law, for U.S. training and equipment. Only those particular units against which there is credible evidence of the most heinous crimes are ineligible for U.S. aid. And even those units can again become eligible if the Nigerian Government takes effective steps to bring the responsible individuals to justice.[caption id="attachment_27381" align="alignnone" width="250"] Senator Leahy: urges Buhari to tame the rapists and murderers in the army[/caption] “I strongly agree with President Buhari about the need to defeat Boko Haram, and I have supported tens of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Nigeria for that purpose. But rather than suggest that the United States is at fault for not funding murderers and rapists in the Nigerian military, he should face up to his own responsibility to effectively counter Boko Haram. He should direct his attention to the Nigerian military, and the Nigerian courts, and clean up the units implicated in such atrocities.” According to a report by the Associated Press, Buhari “departs with little practical military assistance in his battle against the Islamist militants who have turned the northeast of his country into a bloody war zone.” The news organization reported that the US government told the Nigerian leader that its arms are tied by an American law, the Leahy Act, which prevents it from selling arms to countries with human rights abuse records. But the reports indicated that on the issue of corruption, the US government had indicated that it will assist Nigeria recover all identified ill-gotten wealth in countries in which they have jurisdiction, including the U.S itself. The United States has also indicated its readiness to provide training to judicial staff and prosecutors “in order to place Nigeria in a good position to uncover proceeds of corruption and for improved prosecution of cases of crime.” This was part of the details of the meeting between President Buhari and United States Attorney-General Loretta Lynch on the subject of support for the war on corruption in Nigeria. In the same vein, the two parties also agreed to strengthen the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty signed between the two countries in 1985 which came into effect in 2003. “There will be collaboration. Each of the two countries will receive legal assistance from the other on criminal matters and that should cover the recovery of ill-gotten wealth. On extradition, we already have a treaty with U.S. by virtue of being a former British colonial territory. There is however the possibility that Nigeria might negotiate a new extradition treaty to meet our other requirements. The negotiation will be done under the auspices of a ‘reenergized’ U.S-Nigeria Bi-National Commission” an official statement said. On its part, the President said in a statement on Friday that he had a very successful and useful talks with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, other high-ranking US government officials and members of United States Congress during his visit to Washington DC. It is his expectation that those talks will lead to better mutual understanding and a further deepening of bilateral relations between Nigeria and the United States, especially in Nigeria's current priority areas of defence and security cooperation. Wahab Shittu, a Lagos based lawyer said in a widely publicized article last week that beyond focus on security, war against terrorism as well as trade and economic relations, it is expected that the far reaching outcome of the visit will result in the strengthening of the US’ long lasting friendship with Nigeria. While noting that Buhari’s invitation to US was on the strength of his integrity, discipline and incorruptibility, the legal practitioner argued that the president must never allow the international goodwill to be squandered. “The expectation is that the president’s latest visit to the US will mark a good beginning for the realisation of Nigerian’s vast potential", Shittu wrote. As noted by Obama, Buhari came into the office with a reputation of integrity and a clear agenda on corruption and Boko Haram insurgency including fixing the economy and infrastructure. If the president succeeds on these fundamentals, it is only then that his visit to the US can be said to be meaningful to Nigerians,” said Shittu. Odilim Enwegbara, a developmental economist said the visit of the President to the US has the capability of helping to improve Nigeria’s economic fortunes. According to him, as Nigeria's economically, it is possible that the US might reconsider buying Nigeria’s oil while the new friendship can make Nigeria navigate the global economic and trade diplomacy with less difficulty. “In particular, it will make Buhari's efforts to recover Nigeria's stolen hundreds of billions of dollars kept overseas by our past government officials, easy to find and repatriate,” said Enwegbara. He added that by Nigeria to strengthen surveillance of the Gulf of Guinea, the US can help to drastically reduce the stealing of Nigeria’s oil by international thieves. In the same vein, he added that the re-energised US- Nigeria relationship has confirmed Nigeria's status in today's world as a serious investment destination among others. “No doubt Obama's public confirmation of Buhari’s impeccable integrity and honest leadership is a big deal for Nigeria, a country whose leaders have always been seen by the whole world to have penchant for corruption. What this message sends out to foreign investors and governments wanting to deal with Nigeria is that finally the corruption zero-tolerant Nigeria is now welcoming them with the full assurance that no longer should they be afraid of the safety of their investments in Nigeria because of its past corrupt and weak system, lacking credibility in the rule of law,” Enwegbara said.