Since assuming office on May 29, President Buhari has spent a lot of time abroad, including attending a G7 Summit in Germany and speaking at an African Union meeting in South Africa. He has also made trips to neighbouring countries Chad and Niger to address the regional security threat posed by Boko Haram.
Over recent weeks, the global community has been generally celebrating Nigeria, including the leading international news weekly, Time Magazine, which published a very positive review on the country recently. it said Nigeria is one of the very few things that is currently positive in a world described by the publication as depressing.
It read: “After years of corruption and stagnation, Africa’s largest economy needed new political energy and March’s presidential election provided exactly that. After 16 years of one-party rule following the country’s shift from military control to democracy in 1999, opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari won a clear victory and a strong mandate.
“The incumbent accepted defeat and power changed hands peacefully. That’s crucial in a country where stability depends on a delicate political balance between Christians in the south, Muslims in the north and various ethnic groups and provincial factions.”
As such sentiments spread in the international community, there are now at least three major countries known to have invited President Buhari to visit their executive heads of government in what promises to be fairly elaborate state visits sooner or later this year. Invitations President Buhari has received have come from the US, UK and India.
One senior UN official confirmed that the world body is hoping that President Buhari attends the next General Assembly summit alongside more than 100 heads of state who are expected. Of the three major nations being mentioned so far, it is the White House offer that is expected to generate the greatest diplomatic windfall for President Buhari and Nigeria.
While Nigeria and the US enjoyed good relationship during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the perception that the former Nigerian president was weak on fighting corruption and Boko Haram damaged the otherwise warm diplomatic rapport between both countries. But in both US and Nigerian diplomatic circles, there is wide agreement that the emergence of the Buhari-Osinbajo presidency has changed the tone, restoring warm diplomatic relationships again.
This, according to US sources explained why President Barack Obama, wanted to send his vice president, Joe Biden, to lead the presidential delegation to witness Nigeria’s May 29 presidential inauguration. However, Mr Biden could not eventually make the trip because his now passed son, Beau Biden, was very ill.
At the just-concluded African Union summit in South Africa, US assistant secretary of state Linda Thomas-Greenfield, discussed with the Nigerian delegation to the summit details of a proposed White House and US reception for President Buhari very soon. In the UK, it is believed that during President Buhari’s visit to London just before he was sworn in last month, the issue of a formal state visit to London was discussed with the British Prime Minister David Cameron, who made the offer.
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