When the United States president Donald Trump invited President Muhammadu Buhari to visit, it was seen as a big plus, more so when Trump poured encomiums on his guest.
But the Financial Times is reporting that the US leader actually referred to Buhari as “lifeless” shortly after a meeting between them on April 30.
That meeting, the report said, ended with Trump saying he never wanted to meet someone as lifeless as Buhari again.
At home, emotions continue to run on both sides of the support divide as governments of both countries maintain studied silence.
Not so for opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which says President Muhammadu Buhari and his handlers have opened our nation for international ridicule arising from reports quoting United States President, Donald Trump, describing President Buhari as “lifeless”.
The party said such embarrassment is a backlash a nation gets when incompetent leaders, out of inferiority complex, resort to jumping around the world, desperately shopping for endorsement from world leaders.
The party says President Buhari has been seeking international recognitions that are not predicated on any achievements from his three years in office.
It adds in its statement: “PDP hereby charges Mr. President to take a cue from the comments ascribed to President Trump by settling down at home and discharge his responsibilities to Nigerians or humbly accept his failings.
“While the PDP has strong reservations on the reported comment by President Trump, for which we demand a response from the Buhari Presidency and the US White House, the party further holds that had our dear President not cheapened the exalted office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by his woeful outing during his visit to the United States, President Trump would not have had the opportunity to assess his level of incompetence and make such an embarrassing statement about our President.
“The PDP and indeed all well-meaning Nigerians are now sore worry over how other world leaders have been perceiving our President, who has not only failed in governance but has continued to demarket our nation in the international community.
“The PDP however urges Nigerians not to be downcast by the embarrassing situation the nation has found itself, especially as the 2019 general election, which comes in the next six months, offers the nation the ample opportunity to get it right on the choice of competent leadership Nigerians can be proud of.”