President Buhari has thrown his weight behind one presidential candidate for the United States election scheduled for November 8, 2016. The President said Nigeria is backing the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton against her closest challenger Donald Trump.
The statement was made by the President in a meeting with APC women’s wing in Enugu State. President Buhari was represented by the Minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, in the event. According to him, “In less than two weeks, a woman, Hillary Clinton will win election as the President of the United States.
“The Federal Government is willing to work with the first female president of the United States of America.” But here is the catch, Nigeria and the Clintons have not always had a smooth relationship in the past. The State Department, under Clinton, resisted congressional calls to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization.
Again, Clinton’s ties to Gilbert Chagoury, a prominent Nigerian businessman and Clinton Foundation supporter, have prompted at least one member of Congress to question the motives behind her decision not to slap Boko Haram with a Foreign Terrorist Organization classification.
Hillary’s husband, Bill Clinton had participated in events with Chagoury while his wife was secretary of state. The Clinton Foundation’s has also accepted donations from Nigerian companies.
The gesture had raised red flags in the past. For example, the First Bank of Nigeria, one of the country’s largest financial institutions, gave as much as $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation. The son of the former chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria was sentenced to life in prison after attempting to blow up a Detroit- bound passenger flight on Christmas Day 2009. Bill Clinton accepted between $500,000 and $1 million from a Nigerian newspaper publisher in 2012 to speak at an event in Lagos.
The money went straight into the Clinton Foundation, donor records show. Procter & Gamble’s Nigeria operation won a prestigious State Department award in 2011.
The company donated between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. Hillary Clinton personally presented the company with the award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Nestle Nigeria, a food manufacturing company, also donated to the Clinton Foundation. Hillary Clinton reportedly invited Buhari to meet with her in 2009, years before the Nigerian president assumed office.
So, it beats our imagination as to why the anti-corruption Buhari is backing the Presidency of Hillary Clinton.
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