Press statement from the Presidency...
The State House 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, 2016.
In a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday, February 9, Malam Garba
Shehu (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 as a result of an
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.
Malam 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."
Malam 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."
Garba Shehu
SSAP
(Media and Publicity)
Title : Buhari Never called Nigerians "Criminals"- Presidency
Description : Press statement from the Presidency... The State House has described as misconstrued, the various interpretations of President Muhammad...
