
The Presidency on Sunday said the United States’ policy and support to Nigeria had been inconsistent over the years, especially as regards the provision of military equipment to fight the decade-long insecurity in the Sahel region.
It also berated US policy experts and think-tanks for their perennial attempts at predicting the country’s collapse; which, it said, did not paint a true picture of a country which has enjoyed 23 years of steady democracy 29 years since its last coup.
Citing the delayed delivery of 12 Super Tucano jet fighters for the Nigerian Air Force, the Presidency noted that the reasons given for the delay—poor interreligious relations between Christianity and Islam in the country—were compounded by the constant lobbying of US Congress by the opponents of the Nigerian government including the Catholic Bishop of Diocese of Sokoto, Mathew Kukah, whom it accused of projecting a warped picture of Nigeria’s 23-year-old democracy to the global community.
These were contained in a statement on Sunday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, titled, ‘Predicting Nigeria’s collapse is a perennial pursuit of US think tanks and policy experts.’
Shehu also accused the Catholic Bishop of Diocese of Sokoto, Mathew Kukah , and “opponents of the Nigerian government who had lost the previous election, and many of their southern religious supporters” of constant lobbying of US Congress against Nigeria.
The statement read in part, “It is a pity therefore that US policy and support towards our country, including during the Buhari administration, has been so inconsistent.
The Presidency also lamented that despite glaring contrary evidence, those predicting Nigeria’s imminent collapse have continued to bet big on their words