Nigeria’s Presidency said President Muhammad Buhari’s frequent trips abroad are not for “sightseeing” but a benefit to the country’s economy.
“The President’s trips are not sightseeing trips, they are justified by outcomes,” Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Insisting that the economy needs Buhari’s trips, Shehu said: “In each of the trips, we try to let Nigerians know what the things the president has achieved; and so, we are making progress, the economy needs the trips because much of it actually comes on account of who the president is.”
Buhari’s frequent travel abroad has drawn criticism from Nigerians and opposition members. He has embarked on eight different trips, one each to Burkina Faso, New York, South Africa, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom. He traveled twice to Saudi.
His recent trip – to Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom – will last 21 days as he is expected to return on November 17.
By the end of his trip to Saudi, Buhari would have traveled out of the country for 48 days since he was sworn in for a second term on May 29.
