By Shola Abayomi.
The Presidency has thrown its weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to read from a prepared speech while responding to questions at the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019.
The president, who served as a discussant at the event which took place in New York yesterday as part of the ongoing 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly was also trolled on social media for purportedly veering off the topic in response to a question.
Watch this video of General @MBuhari at the @UN and pray for him. The lady asked him him what pathway Nigeria has for a resilient future for her young population and General Buhari answered something completely different about CLIMATE CHANGE!#FreeLeahSharibu #RenosDarts pic.twitter.com/jdkpYhRnLt
— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) September 24, 2019
President Buhari alongside representatives of the Netherlands, Fiji and the Bank of England were among the panelists that treated the topic, “Towards a Resilient Future: Announcement of Plans to Mainstream Climate Risk in Decision Making.”
The Nigerian leader read from a prepared script when he was asked by a moderator at the session, “President Buhari, Nigeria has a very young population; perhaps you might highlight what a pathway for a resilient future looks like?”
The president was severely criticized by some Nigerians who interpreted his reliance on a script as a sign of intellectual incompetence.
In its reaction to Buhari’s critics, the Presidency in a statement insisted that the president efficiently tackled the question posed to him.
It said, “The goal of the panel was to elicit ‘announcements’ from the panelists on behalf of their respective countries: Fiji, Nigeria, Netherlands, the Bank of England, etc. In other words, panelists were billed to deliver remarks announcing their country/organisation plans to build a resilient, climate-sensitive future.
“To address the theme of the event, President Buhari chose to deliver prepared remarks And most importantly, he touched on the issues re: mainstreaming climate action for the future and for the young people of Nigeria.”