United National Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed has dismissed criticisms of President Buhari’s crackdown on protesters, stressing that her former boss reacted to the protest better than any other world leader in a similar situation.
Speaking during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House on Monday, the former minister of environment was quoted by The Nation to have said: “We have not seen governments turn around in response as quickly as this government did.”
The comments were in sharp contrasts to those of her boss at the UN. Secretary-General António Guterres who condemned Nigerian military’s deployment of armed soldiers against civilians at a protest ground in Lekki, Lagos, during which at least nine people were killed.
President Buhari has declined to publicly condemn the attack or order a probe. However, his ministers say the incident will be investigated.
Ms Mohammed also used the occasion of the meeting to blame coronavirus pandemic and the wave of joblessness that followed it for the historic #EndSARS campaign that was held in Nigeria last month.
“I have to say that there are lots of protests around this world that have been exacerbated by COVID because, COVID has left people out of work, left people hopeless because of the socio-economic impact and in many of those protests.”
It would be recalled that Ms. Mohammed served as Nigeria’s minister of environment under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for two years before leaving for the united nations.
Her ministerial tenure ended with multiple allegations of corruption levelled against her by the Environmental Investigation Agency over the questionable sale of Nigerian rosewood worth millions of dollars.
