President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday jetted out of the country to Japan where a Japan-Africa Summit is taking place.
This is in spite of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s absence from the country.
Abe is attending the G7 Summit in France, where the presidents of South Africa, Egypt, Rwanda and Senegal are in attendance.
Could Buhari have been drawn to Japan by the state banquet being organised for him and his entourage as well as the invitation of Emperor Naruhito to a tea reception at the Imperial Palace, Tokyo?
While Presidents Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Abdel Fatta El-sisi (Egypt) and Macky Sall (Senegal) are deliberating with other world powers on vital issues of climate change and digital economy, President Buhari is in Japan for a summit with minimal benefit to the Nigerian economy, given the fact that his host, Japanese PM is away in France for a more crucial global summit.
As the G7 summit in France comes to an end, with the leaders of the key democratic, major economies; US Donald Trump, Britain’s Boris Johnson, Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macro, are expected to tackle some of the thorny issues on their agenda, the participating African governments are expected to take away some key bilateral agreements on trade to boost their home economies.
One thing is clear, Buhari will be hosted by Nigeria’s ambassador to Japan and some low ranking Japanese officials until Abe returns to drink tea with the President and the entire Nigerian entourage comprising the governors of Borno Kwara and Lagos states.
