Buhari arrives Turkey amid #NorthisBleeding protest

President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday night, to attend the third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

RELIABLESOURCENG.COM reports that the president’s trip to Turkey came amid gathering protests in northern Nigeria, under the hashtag, #NorthisBleeding.

The protesters are calling the attention of the president to the ceaseless blood-letting, kidnappings, rape of women and young girls and other forms of insecurity in the north of Nigeria and across the federation.

A statement by the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, earlier Thursday, said the summit with the theme, ‘‘Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity’’ will review the cooperation between African countries and Turkey since the last summit in 2014.

The summit is also expected to provide guidelines and direction for Turkey’s cooperation with African countries for the next five years.

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The third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit is coming on the heels of President Erdogan’s recent State Visit to Nigeria “during which several agreements in the fields of energy, defence industry, mining and hydrocarbons were signed to expand existing bilateral ties”, Shehu said.

According to the president’s spokesman, the Turkish leader had, during his visit to Nigeria, “affirmed commitment to immediately expand the volume of trade between the two countries to 5 billion dollars and the Nigerian delegation will seize the opportunity of the gathering in Istanbul to enhance cooperation with other partners for more trade and investment opportunities in the country”.

Shehu said President Buhari is being accompanied on the trip by his wife, Aisha Buhari; the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Defence, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi (Rtd); FCT, Mohammed Bello; Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire; Agriculture, Mohammed Abubakar; Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo; the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (Rtd); and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.

The President is expected back in Abuja on Sunday, December 19.