US president, Donald Trump, referred to his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari as “lifeless”, shortly after a meeting between the two leaders on April 30, Financial Times reported on Monday.
Buhari, the first sub-Saharan Africa president to meet Trump since he took over as the 45th American president, was in the US for bilateral talks on Trump’s invitation.
That meeting ended with Trump saying he never wanted to meet someone as lifeless as Buhari again, Financial Times reported, citing three persons familiar with the matter.
American and Nigerian governments have not reacted to the publication published on the same day Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta will be at the White House.
After the meeting at a joint press conference, Trump said he had an implicit belief in Buhari to rein in the “massive corruption” in the country and commended his efforts at doing that.
“Nigeria has a reputation for very massive corruption. I also know that the President has been able to cut that down very substantially,” Trump said.
“We talked about that, he is working on it and they have made a lot of progress and I think they will continue to make a lot of progress.”
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