President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that US president, Donald Trump, during a meeting in 2018, accused him of killing of Christians in Nigeria.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat of his second term, Buhari expressed that this happened in April 2018 when President Trump hosted him at the White House.
The event marked Trump’s first official visit from an African head of state when he came into power.
According to Buhari, he was the only African amongst the least developed countries that Trump invited to the White House.
Buhari revealed that during their discussion, Trump put him on the spot by directly asking him (Buhari) why he was slaughtering Christians in Nigeria.
He revealed;
I believe I was about the only African amongst the least developed countries that Trump invited and when I was in his office, only myself and himself, only God is a witness, he looked at me in the face and said, ‘Why are you killing Christians?
He asked his cabinet members how they would feel if they were the ones confronted with such a grave allegation.
The President expressed;
I wonder if you were the person how you will react. I hope what I was feeling inside did not betray my emotion.
Buhari disclosed that in his defence he told Trump that conflicts in the country were caused by successive leaders who tampered with established grazing routes.
He stated;
I told him that the problem between the cattle rearers and stagnant farmers I know is older than me, not to talk of him (Trump). I think I am a couple of years older than him.
The problem between cattle rearers and farmers has been happening for a long time. And there was climate change and population growth. I tried to explain to him that it has nothing to do with ethnicity or religion. It is a cultural thing which respective leaderships failed the nation.
The President noted;
With climate change and population growth and the culture of the cattle rearers, if you have 50 cows and they eat grass, any route to your water point, they will follow it, it doesn’t matter whose farm it was.
