The presidency has described as misconstrued the various interpretations of President Muhammadu Buhari’s comments in an interview granted to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper on February 5.
In a statement Tuesday by Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, noted that the wave of negative reactions to the President’s remarks about the reputation of Nigerians abroad was a result of incomplete understanding of President Buhari’s point.
“President Buhari was asked about the flood of migrants from Nigeria and the fraudulent applications for asylum put in by people desperate to leave their motherland at any cost, and it was this question that elicited his response,” he said, encouraging Nigerians to avail themselves of a full text of the interview, which has now been made available on the Telegraph’s website.
Mr Shehu added that it was preposterous for anyone to imagine that the president of Nigeria would describe all the citizens of the country he leads as criminals, when he himself is a Nigerian–obviously not a criminal–and when there are many Nigerians of honest living making their country proud all over the world.
“Unfortunately, there are also Nigerians giving their country a bad image abroad, and it is to those Nigerians that the President referred in his comments,” he said, adding that people may play politics and online games with the President’s comments, but the fact of the matter remains that Nigeria’s reputation abroad has been severely damaged by her own citizens.
“These Nigerians who leave their country to go and make mischief on foreign shores have given the rest of us a bad reputation that we daily struggle to overcome.”
Mr. Shehu called attention to the many efforts of President Buhari to clean up the image of Nigeria, such as the war on corruption, stating that acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to preferring a solution.
“President Buhari is very aware of the problems the people of Nigeria face both at home and abroad, and he is not shying away from admitting them even as he focuses on solutions to bring them to a permanent end.”
Premium Times
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Nigeria Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh goes on youtube rant
Nigeria's head coach Sunday Oliseh hits back at the "insanity" of critics in the Nigerian media with an eight-minute rant.
The Super Eagles were eliminated in the group stages of African football tournament CHAN, but Oliseh defends his record, and points out he has lost just two of his 14 games in charge of Nigeria.
Monday, February 8, 2016
Former Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi criticises President Buhari
Mr Sanusi said the drawbacks of the policy "far outweigh its dubious benefits", the Financial Times reports.
President Muhammadu Buhari told the BBC last week that he was not convinced of the need to "murder" the naira.
The falling oil price has put pressure on his currency policy.
The authorities are keeping the official naira rate at around 200 to the US dollar, but the black market rate is closer to 300.
The government relies on oil exports for vital foreign exchange and the declining price means there are fewer dollars in the country.
"The government does not have the reserves to keep the exchange rate at its official level in the market, " Mr Sanusi told the Financial Times.
The policy has "never worked" wherever it has been tried, he added.
But Mr Buhari told the BBC that he is yet to be convinced that he should allow the currency to be devalued.
In an effort to sustain the policy, the government has imposed currency restrictions, and halted the importation of certain goods in order to stop dollars leaving the country.
Mr Sanusi was the central bank governor from 2009 to 2014, when he was suspended by then-President Goodluck Jonathan following a row over corruption in the oil sector.
He is now the emir of Kano, an influential religious post among Muslims in Nigeria.
BBC
Friday, February 5, 2016
Video - Hijacked oil tanker recovered from separatists in Nigeria
An oil tanker hijacked by Nigerian separatists has been recovered. Nigeria's navy say the Greek-owned MT Leon Dias is now anchored off the coast of Benin. There's no confirmation yet on the fate of the crew or the hijackers. They seized the ship last week. And threatened to blow it up - unless authorities freed a Biafran separatist leader. The incident has fuelled tensions around the ongoing calls for an independent Biafran state.
Related story: Militants in Nigeria hijack merchant ship and demand release of activist
Nigeria rises in FIFA rankings
Sunday Oliseh’s men were ranked 66 in the January edition of the monthly rankings.
Yesterday’s result means the win against Niger and draw with Tunisia at the soccer championship for home-based national team players have improved the country’s rating in the latest FIFA rankings.
Not only that, the win over Cote d’Ivoire and draw with Angola in warm-up matches for the tournament in Rwanda have also added more points to the Super Eagles.
However, they are now 12th in Africa with Cote d’Ivoire still the best ranked African team as they are 28th in the world.
Nigeria’s AFCON 2017 rivals Egypt are now 55th in the world and eighth in Africa.
The FIFA rankings are expected to be one of the things to consider when the draw for the final round of the qualifying tournament for the 2018 World Cup is done in June.
Teams will be drawn in five groups to play on home and away basis with the overall group winners qualifying for the World Cup in Russia.
The other top ranked teams in Africa are Cape Verde, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Congo, Egypt, DR Congo, Guinea and Cameroon.
Belgium remain atop the pile beating Argentina to the second position with reigning world champions Germany dropping to fourth place.
Former world champions Spain are unmoved at number three while Euro 2016 hosts France climbed up one place to the 24th spot.
The three most impressive teams for February’s ranking all come from Asia: Palestine (110, plus 21), Saudi Arabia (55, plus 20) and Korea DPR (95, plus 18) enjoyed the biggest advances since the last world ranking.
The next FIFA world ranking will be published on March 3, 2016.
Daily Trust
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