President Buhari Reportedly Prevented From Seeing Pope For Late Coming

The Nigerian mission inexplicably messed up the itinerary
of President Muhammadu Buhari at the United Nations
General Assembly meeting in New York on Friday,
TheCable can report.
The president missed a very important event on Boko
Haram and internally displaced persons (IDPs) and was
also prevented from meeting with Pope Francis because
he was not properly briefed by the Nigerian UN mission
staff.
The pope delivered a speech at the general assembly on
Friday at 10am.
Not only was Buhari made to come in late to the meeting
because of untidy arrangements, he also
took a wrong gate rather than the one reserved for
presidents and heads of state.
He was subsequently prevented from seeing the pope by
security operatives because of his late arrival.
Buhari came in while other presidents and heads of
government had already lined up to shake hands with the
pope, and he was prevented by security operatives from
joining in.
Presidency had sought to explain away the missed
meeting as not being part of the official events lined up
for the president.
“The meeting at which Nigeria was reportedly absent was
not one of the official events of the United Nations for
which President Muhammadu Buhari and his modest
delegation are in New York,” Garba Shehu, a presidential
spokesman, had said.
But not only was it an official event, the focus was on the
Lake Chad Basin and the effects of insurgency to which
Nigeria’s full participation was expected.
The listed UN events had the item: “The Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will hold a
side event on food security and humanitarian
consequences of conflicts-driven displacement in the
Lake Chad Basin region.”
It was scheduled for 3pm US time (8pm Nigerian time),
but the president’s programme prepared by the Nigerian
mission did not list it as one of the events he should
attend.
The session was titled “Lake Chad Basin at A Cross Road:
Addressing Urgent Humanitarian Needs in An Overlooked
Crisis”.
A high-level government representative of the Nigerian
Government was expected to be at the event which was
organised by the United Nations Office for the Co-
ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and chaired
by Stephen O’Brien, undersecretary-general of the UN.
Witnesses to both incidents described as “embarrassing
and unacceptable” the attitude of the Nigerian mission
staff which led to media backlash back home and on the
social media.
The witnesses also blamed the presidential media team
for rushing to the press to defend the president’s
absence at a very crucial meeting whose discussion was
on a matter in which Nigeria has been worst hit by the
activities of the insurgents.
Meanwhile, the event Buhari eventually attended in place
of the one on the insurgency was not only poorly
attended but was full of protocol breeches, as the
president was already seated before other speakers
started strolling in.