Fight against graft: Buhari tackles the foreign end

Since his inauguration, everywhere President Muhammadu Buhari went, he was received with palpable admiration. Enroute Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he took part in the just conclueded African Union summit, President Buhari had visited Kenya on a three-day official visit. The chemistry between him and President Uhuru Kenyatta was unmistakably right. The visit by Buhari must […]

Since his inauguration, everywhere President Muhammadu Buhari went, he was received with palpable admiration. Enroute Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he took part in the just conclueded African Union summit, President Buhari had visited Kenya on a three-day official visit. The chemistry between him and President Uhuru Kenyatta was unmistakably right. The visit by Buhari must have been quite abstemious one in contradistinction to the last one undertaken by former President Goodluck Jonathan who bamboozled the Kenyans by the sheer number of Nigerian owned private Jets that swarmed their skies as part of his entourage. Buhari has pledged to assist the Kenyans that Nigerians will share knowledge with them in terms of petroleum technology. The Kenyans you may recall have just discovered crude oil in commercial quantities.
At the AU Summit proper in Addis, President Buhari was almost overwhelmed by sheer goodwill and solidarity shown by different brother African Heads of State including President Macky Sall of Senegal, Yayah Jammeh of Gambia, Alassane Outtara of Ivory Coast and even President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who had clearly seen Buhari’s strong leadership and no-nonsense approach to the fight against graft.
The world had looked forward to see who it was that dethroned Peoples Democratic Party. Buhari needed to re-launch Nigeria among our well-wishers and (re) introduce himself as someone who would lead the new order and fulfil our societal dreams. It’s unheard of that a ruling political party was defeated and power peacefully transferred to the opposition in Nigeria. The world was eager to see this new leader and to do business with him.
One of the most successful visits Buhari has undertaken was the visit to the United Arab Emirates, popularly called Dubai. The Dubai visit is important not only because of the number and significance of the agreements signed between UAE and Nigeria but also because of the size of our country’s stolen money stashed there and the chance to recover it.
Four Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) agreements were signed aimed at boosting Buhari’s frontal fight against corruption. One of the aspects of this MLA will improve the effectiveness of both countries in the investigation and prosecution of crime, and the confiscation of criminal proceeds.
The second aspect involves the extradition of persons wanted in each other’s country to face trial in cases attracting two years imprisonment or more.
The third aspect of the MLA allows UAE and Nigeria to exchange prisoners so that nationals of the two countries can serve sentences in their native land.
The final aspect of this MLA requires UAE and Nigeria to support each other in the service of summons and other judicial documents or processes as well as the taking of evidence and in the execution of decrees, settlements and awards.
On the commercial side, Nigeria and UAE’s signed documents ensure the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments in each as well as the avoidance of double taxation. Nigeria wants to tap into the UAE’s USD 800 Sovereign Wealth Fund by way of investment.
The UAE leaders also pledged to assist in the rehabilitation of North Eastern Nigeria. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the UAE Armed Forces, His Highness Muhammad Bin Zayyad Al-Nahyan, with whom Buhari held fruitful talks, had promised to send the leadership of the Emirate’s Red Crescent to come to the affected areas to assess the needs of the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.
All of Buhari’s foreign trips have been cost effective. For example, at the UN, Buhari addressed the Assembly in the same Baban Riga that he wore at his inauguration in Abuja. His foreign visits are shunned of any flamboyance. Beginning with his official visit to the United States of America, on the invitation of President Barack Obama just two months after inauguration, Buhari travelled with a modest 33-man delegation. Apart from United Kingdom, the United States is easily our most important foreign friend and not just because they bought our crude oil. No Nigerian President could ignore a handshake with a US President and the opportunity it brings to discuss trade relations. To underscore the importance of the visit and the high esteem with which Obama regarded Buhari, the Americans accommodated the Nigerian President inside Blair House on Pennsylvania Avenue, a stone throw from the White House, the first for any Nigerian leader.
The testimony of Buhari’s successful trip to US was given by President Obama himself: “President Buhari comes into office with a reputation for integrity and a very clear agenda, and that is to make sure that he is bringing safety and security to his country….a very clear agenda in defeating Boko Haram and extremists of all sorts in his country….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.”
 However, like everything Nigerian, there has been a lot of hot air over the frequency of President Muhammadu Buhari’s foreign travels, their cost as well as their benefits. Thus far, Buhari has been to G-7 Summit in Germany, visited the United States of America, attended the United Nations meetings in New York, was in France in and the neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad, Cameroun and Benin Republic. He was also in Ghana in September.  President Buhari also participated in the African Union Summit in South Africa and went back there recently to take part in the China- Africa Forum. He had also travelled to India in October 2015 for meetings between the Indian Prime Minister and African Heads of State. In November, 2015, Buhari also travelled to Iran to take part in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. President Buhari equally attended the British Commonwealth summit in Malta in November 2015.