NIGERIA GOVERNMENT SPEAKS ON POSSIBILITY OF TRUMP'S VISIT

Nigerian Government has spoken on the suggested visit to
the country by the US President, Donald Trump.
Speaking through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey
Onyeama, the government said the visit may not happen any
moment soon as it will take up to a year to prepare.

Onyeama, who said this in Washington, DC, adding that
Trump also has a very busy schedule while Nigeria’s general
election was also coming up.
Trump had told Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari that
he would like to visit Nigeria, a country he described as
“amazing.”
“I would very much like to visit Nigeria. It is an amazing
country and in certain ways, I hear from the standpoint of
the beauty of a country.
“There is no country more beautiful,” Trump said on Monday
at a joint briefing with Buhari.

““Regarding the invitation, well if the programmers of the
two presidents are very very intensive, it usually takes
anything up to a year to prepare for invitation at that kind of
level before they actually take place.

“Of course in Nigeria you know we have elections coming up
and a very very busy schedule as that of President Trump.
May be sometime next year we could envisage something
like that,” he said.
Onyeama explained that Buhari’s outing at the U.S. was a
win-win for Nigeria and the U.S. saying each president has
10 members of his delegation during the bilateral meeting
between Buhari and Trump.
He added that Buhari met with six Chief Executive Officers
of U.S. agriculture companies and with a group of 10 U.S.
business leaders from different sectors, including petroleum..

“Areas covered were Security, trade, governance issues. On
trade, the objective was to increase the level of trade
between Nigeria and the United States.
“The two presidents agreed that concerted efforts will be
made. The issues of market access in the context were
discussed.
“On security, the U.S. has been helping Nigeria, supplying
military equipment in the fight against terrorism and there is
agreement to continue the cooperation between the two
countries in this context.

“In the area of governance, the return to Nigeria in the area
of large sums of money that has been siphoned out of
Nigeria and lodged in banks in various jurisdictions around
the world and the cooperative with the United States helping
to repatriate these funds to Nigeria were also discussed.
“A commitment was made to me his cooperation in this
regard.

“So there were good wins, on the security side, continued
cooperation and of course reparations of these funds and
increase in trade,” he said.
On Trump’s request for Nigeria to support the joint U.S. bid
for the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Canada and Mexico,
Onyeama suggested there was no commitment from Nigeria
so far.
“We will wait and see,” the Nigeria’s foreign minister said.

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