Ministers Did Not Snub US-Nigeria Investment Summit, Says Lai Mohammed

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Monday, April 23rd, 2018

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Federal Government of Nigeria has denied media reports that Ministers who were invited to the US-Nigeria Investment Summit in Washington, DC, last week – April 19, 2018 shunned the forum.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement issued Monday in London said most of the Ministers who were slated to attend the event were not invited and were not in Washington, DC, at the time, hence the insinuation that some Ministers collected estacodes without attending the forum was baseless.

Alhaji Mohammed disclosed that the Ministers of Agriculture; Power, Works and Housing and Budget and National Planning did not get any invitation from the organizers, even though, they were listed among those who were expected to attend.

He added that the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, who was invited, was with the President at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London at the time of the summit, while the Minister of Finance, who was in Washington, DC, at the time, was there purposely to attend the 2018 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

He however noted though, he (Minister of Information and Culture) was invited to the forum, he wrote back to inform the organizers that he would not be able to make the trip due to conflicting schedules.

”It is clear from the foregoing that no Minister shunned the US Investment Summit and that the reports being circulated in that regard are bereft of facts,” Alhaji Mohammed said.