Posted on: 05:07 Tue, 19 Apr 2016



The former governor of Lagos State,
Babatunde Raji Fashola has revealed
the major motivations of Buhari’s
highly criticized foreign trips.

President Muhammadu Buhari has
continued his foreign trips in a bid
to “ repair Nigeria’s reputation
which was severely damaged by the
administration of former President
Goodluck Jonathan“, the Minister of
Power, Works and Housing,
Babatunde Fashola, said on
Monday.

Fashola, in an article titled, “PMB’s
foreign trips – My takeaway,” also
stated that Buhari’s intervention in
the global oil and gas sector led to
the recent stability in crude oil
prices.

The minister further stressed that
Nigeria currently has the support of
the world’s seven most powerful
countries. He attributed this to the
visit the President made during a
meeting of the G7 countries in
Germany, last year.

On why he decided to make this
public, Fashola stated that he
sought to ensure that every
Nigerian who cared about the
country had some information
about what the President was
doing.

He stated that barely two decades
ago, Nigeria was ostracised from
global events because of bad
governance, adding that the
country lost the respect accorded
nations like ours.

Explaining what transpired during
the recent meeting with top
government officials in China, the
former Lagos State governor stated
that six collaborative agreements
were signed.

He added:-

“This last mentioned agreement
was a legitimate coup by PMB,
because the intelligence was that
some West African countries were
going to sign before us. PMB
seized the moment. Of course, he
had to apologise for our previous
failures on our agreement made
to part-fund four airport projects
in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port
Harcourt and the Abuja-Kaduna
rail project.

“The Chinese had provided their
agreed part of 85 per cent but the
remaining 15 per cent Nigeria did
not honour during the last
administration. Some of the
recent revelations about financial
scandals estimated at $2.1bn in
the Office of the National Security
Adviser alone during the last
administration suggest how
impactful such funds would have
been in delivering these critical
infrastructures; but we all know
what happened.

“This is why PMB is travelling. To
repair our reputation severely
damaged by the last government,
and to assure our partners that
Nigeria has changed. From there,
to renegotiate an existing funding
agreement to complete critical
transport infrastructure.”

On the G7 meeting in Germany, the
minister noted that the German
Chancellor, Angela Merkel, as host,
had invited Buhari on his
inauguration to be their guest,
along with some three or four other
African countries.

The agenda of the meeting, he said,
was global security, economy and
health in the aftermath of Ebola,
which was still raging in some
African countries then.

Fashola stated that apart from the
personal aides of the President,
other officials who accompanied
Buhari on the trip were Governor
Shettima of Borno State, General
Abdulrahman Dambazau and
himself.