I’m a Nigerian, I’m not a criminal, Buhari says

President Muhammadu Buhari has refuted reports that he referred to all Nigerians as being criminally minded in an interview he granted UK’s Telegraph newspaper recently, noting that he could not refer to every Nigerian as criminals, as he himself is a Nigerian, and not a criminal.

The presidency described as misconstrued, the various interpretations of President Buhari’s comments in that interview.

Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, in a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday, 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.

He urged Nigerians to avail themselves of a full text of the interview, which he said 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.

Read also: Forex policy: Buhari got it wrong –Sanusi

“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.”

 

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now