The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign and Diaspora, Honourable Abike Dabiri-Erewa has asked Nigerians to disregard reports in sections of the media questioning the authenticity of the visit by the Martin Luther King Jr’s family to Nigeria and Buhari’s reception of a commemorative plaque for his fight against corruption.
The social media was, on Thursday, awash with reports that the Martin Luther King, Jr centre had distanced itself from the award given to Buhari on Tuesday, March 27, 2018.
The reports had quoted wife of Martin Luther King Jr, Coretta Scott King, as stating that the award given to President Buhari was not given by “The King Center, at the request of The King Center or by the children of Martin Luther King Jr.”
Telling the Presidency’s side of the story, Dabiri-Erewa, in the statement by her media aide, Abdurrahman Balogun, explained that the commemorative plaque given to Buhari termed “Africania Diaspora” was given by the oldest of the family, Naomi Barbara King, on behalf of the family and not MLK centre.
She added that the award was in recognition of Buhari’s achievements in the fight against corruption, with the trip totally funded by the visiting family and not by the Nigerian government.
On the reported new stance of the Luther King Jr’s family, Dabiri-Erewa said one of the family members, during an interview, was asked to refute his commendation of Buhari’s works in fighting corruption but refused, insisting that his stance was his personal opinion, not that of the family nor the MLK centre.
This, she said led to arguments among members of the Luther King Jr’s family, which led to a tweet, though the family had said they will resolve the issue when they returned to the United States.
The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to obviously fake online news reports on the visit of some members of the MLK family to Nigeria.
The members, led by the Matriarch of MLK, Naomi Barbara King, were in Nigeria as part of the activities initiated to celebrate a low- key Black History Month in Nigeria as part of deepening partnership between Africa and its Diaspora.
As part of the activities, they visited President Muhammadu Buhari and gave him a commemorative plaque for his fight against corruption and what they termed from the “Africania Diaspora” a term for Africans in Diaspora for which the oldest of them all Naomi Barbara King was selected to present on behalf of the family (not MLK centre) as a sign of appreciation to the Nigerian President.
It must be categorically stated here that the trip was totally privately funded and not one kobo was spent by the Nigerian government as it was all a private initiative.
However, after two days in Nigeria, one of the members apparently granted an interview which was seen as being political, asking Nigerians to give President Muhammadu Buhari a chance to continue his good works especially of fighting corruption in Nigeria.
As a non-political group, he was asked to refute the statement, which he refused to, insisting that was how he felt, and it was his personal opinion, not that of the family nor the centre, of which he is a board member and was the Chief Operating Officer for over five years.
This may have led to some arguments among them, which they have said they will resolve when they get back to the United States, which apparently led to the tweet being circulated.
The visit to Nigeria was quite successful that they extended their stay for two major days, surprised at the negative reports on Nigeria.
Members of the public are hereby urged to please discountenance any fake news about the visit and avoid the temptation of destroying all the good things for the sake of politics.
President Muhammadu Buhari achievements in the fight against corruption is undeterred and sacrosanct.
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