Buhari, The Blair House And The Rest Of Us, By Kelechi Deca

There is nothing I will not read about Mr. President's visit to the United States.If my eyes were my ears, I would have them covered by now. Unfortunately, we have focused on the trivia of the visit, instead of the importance if any.

 

And to think that all these ridiculous ignorant comments are by educated Nigerians takes my appetite away.

 

But of the most ridiculous is this over emphasis on Blair House. Why are Nigerians like this?

 

"Buhari should not stay at the Blair House, because they will DNA profile him"…whatever that means…

 

"Buhari does not know the implications of staying at the Blair House….they will record him" bla bla bla…..

 

I have been reading about the dangers of staying at Blair House since the week end, another angle they came up with is that staying there could afford the

 

Americans opportunity to record whatever the Nigerian delegation is deliberating on, as if the US cannot bug Aso Rock if the need be?

 

Why would they need to?

 

Is this a nuclear bomb negotiation?

 

And come to think of it, if they tapped telephones of leaders of Germany, France, Brazil, United Kingdom etc, Nigeria will be a walk over, and they need not do so when Nigerian leaders are in Washington, they can do it right in Abuja.

 

.Back to Blair House

Leaders of countries that take their national security far more serious than Nigeria have stayed at the Blair House before, and nobody saw it as stupidity on the part of those leaders, or about anybody DNA profiling them. Why would it be different for Nigeria?

 

If Queen Elizabeth, Vladmir Putin of Russia,Francois Mitterand of France,Margaret Thatcher, Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו, of Israel,Wen Jiabao of China,Vincente Fox of Mexico, Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, Pervez Musharaf of Pakistan, Nelson Mandela, among other heads of state and governments stayed at the Blair House, why would it be different for Buhari?

 

Blair House has been hosting visiting Presidents and top government functionaries since 1942.

An invitation from the President of the United States to occupy this historic residence is an honor of the highest significance.

If you do not know, this is an essential part of international diplomacy. Nobody rejects such in this era and age.