President Muhammadu Buhari returns to Abuja after UK Trip

President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to Nigeria from London after attending the Global education summit in the United Kingdom.

He touched down at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at about 18:15 pm on Friday. Members of his cabinet and service chiefs received him at the airport.

The President had travelled to attend the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) organised Global Education Summit (GES) before undergoing a scheduled medical check-up.

Speaking on a private national television shortly after his arrival, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, explained that the health checks were only routine and “not an emergency”. “The President is in good shape,” he added.

In the weeks President Buhari spent in the UK, he met and played host to various dignitaries including the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who gave an assurance that the UK is available to assist Nigeria in its war against terrorism.

Earlier, he also participated in an Education Summit where he pledged to increase the budget for the education sector by as much as 50 per cent over the next two years and progressing thereafter to 100 per cent in the next four years.

During the global education summit, co-hosted by Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson and Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyata, President Buhari appeared on a panel of discussants with a live audience alongside other African leaders.

The president was committed to progressively increasing the country’s annual domestic education expenditure by fifty percent over the next two years and up to one hundred percent by 2025 beyond the 20 percent global benchmark.

“We commit to progressively increasing our annual domestic education expenditure by 50 per cent over the next two years and up to 100 per cent by 2025 beyond the 20% global benchmark,” he was quoted to have said in a statement by Femi Adesina.

Subsequently, the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, who was also at the event said Nigeria is expected to receive the sum of $125 million as support from the UK to boost the education sector.

This disclosure was made on Tuesday when he appeared on a life stremed programme on television.

While in London, President Buhari also met with a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, in the wake of the recent crisis rocking the party.

It would be recalled that President Buhari left the country on the 26th of July, he spent 18 days outside the country,

The President is also expected to travel to Kano to attend his Son’s wedding to the daughter of the Emir of Bichi