Nigeria enjoyed good relationship with Trump presidency —Garba Shehu

Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), says Nigeria enjoyed good working relationship with the administration of US President, Donald Trump.

The president’s spokesperson, however, noted that the Buhari regime looked forward to a better relationship with the incoming administration of Joe Biden.

Shehu spoke on Sunday while featuring on Channels Television’s programme, Sunday Politics.

Buhari had on Saturday congratulated the Democrat candidate and US president-elect for his victory at the poll.

Shehu said prior to 2015 when the Buhari regime came into office, so many windows and doors to access American assistance had been shut by past US governments but some of the doors were open due to the improved relationship of Buhari with the US.

Shehu said, “Nigeria and the United States have enjoyed very good relationship and it was even more so under President Trump who just lost the election.

“If you recall very well, this country had procured weapons to fight terrorism and internal security from United States and various world capitals. For some reasons before President Buhari came to office, the United States government and several other nations of the world stopped the sale of weapons to Nigeria.

“To the credit of Mr Trump, he agreed. In fact, he called President Buhari at a short notice and said, Mr Buhari, you want to buy a dozen Super Tucano (these are aircraft most suitable for fighting terrorism like the one we face in the North-East). I give you two months, this is how much you will pay, we will give you. It’s a big relief to us. We will soon start receiving some of the aircraft hopefully next year.

“So, we have had good relationship with Mr Trump but our hope is that this relationship will even be better with President Biden.”

The presidency said the coronavirus pandemic affected the production of the aircraft but said some of 12 A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft would be delivered in 2021.

Topnaija had reported that the Federal Government purchased the aircraft in 2018 in its fight against the Boko Haram terrorists.