Theresa May has signed a security pact with Nigeria’s president aimed at helping the country combat the militant group Boko Haram through better military training and anti-terrorist propaganda techniques developed in the UK. The British prime minister’s agreement with Muhammadu Buhari was announced at a summit between the pair in Abuja and billed by the UK as an example of May’s ambition to promote a greater British presence in Africa and support states under pressure from terrorist threats. “We are determined to work side by side with Nigeria to help them fight terrorism, reduce conflict and lay the foundations for the future stability and prosperity that will benefit us all,” she said. Billed as the UK’s first security and defence partnership with Nigeria, the pact was the centrepiece of the second day of May’s three-day trip to Africa, in which she will visit Kenya on Thursday having been to South Africa on Tuesday. The UK will provide training to the Nigerian military to help it contend with improvised explosive devices used by Boko Haram, and has offered to help train full army units, as opposed to individual soldiers, before they are deployed in the country’s north-east, where the Islamist militant group has its base. It also hopes to cut the flow of new recruits by working with local communities “to push out counter-narratives” to Boko Haram, drawing on the UK’s experience of “countering terrorist propaganda at home”, according to the pact announcement. An additional £13m will be spent on an education programme for the 100,000 children living in the conflict zone. May told Buhari the UK wanted to support Nigeria’s stability and said it was important their joint work on security was undertaken in line with international standards on human rights. The prime minister added that she endorsed the country’s efforts to combat illegal migration and modern slavery. The British prime minister then travelled to Lagos, where she was greeted with several outdoor hoardings bearing her name. May switched tack to promote Britain’s expertise in financial services while seeking to emphasise future trade possibilities, in a week when she had called for the UK to become the leading G7 investor in Africa by 2020. She met Aliko Dangote, one of the country’s wealthiest men, who has already agreed to list his $10bn (£7.7bn) cement business on the London Stock Exchange. Thursday’s trip to Kenya will see May announce that the UK will build a cybercrime centre in Nairobi to help bring prosecutions against paedophiles in the east African nation. The day-long visit will include a meeting with the country’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and a press conference. Kenyan authorities are not able to receive reports of child sexual abuse material from US technology companies because they say the country does not have the secure channels of communication needed. The UK’s National Crime Agency has already worked with Kenya’s anti-human trafficking and child protection unit in several investigations, securing prosecutions in 2015 and 2018 of British men who had sexually abused Kenyan children.<doc-sep>British Prime Minister, Theresa May, arrived at the FMDQ Security Exchange building, Victoria Island, Lagos, for a meeting with the Nigerian business community. The prime minister, accompanied by members of her trade delegation, arrived the venue at 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday. Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr. Femi Otedola and Mr. Tony Elumelu, among others, had earlier assembled at the venue. The meeting, expected to last for 40 minutes, would provide an opportunity for forging more bilateral relations between Nigeria and the United Kingdom. May had earlier on Wednesday afternoon arrived the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, in Lagos after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja. She is billed to spend time with victims of modern slavery during her brief stay in the nation’s commercial hub. The prime minister’s visit to Lagos comes barely eight weeks after the French President, Mr Emmanuel Macron, visited the African Shrine in Ikeja, Lagos. Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, accompanied by his deputy, among other state officials, received the prime minister at the airport. After the reception, May drove out of the airport to attend to her engagements in the state. After May’s meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria and Britain signed agreements on Defence and Security partnership, among others. May’s visit to Nigeria is part of her tour of three African countries. (NAN)<doc-sep>It is Theresa May’s first visit to Nigeria, but Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian president, has made many trips to the UK over the past two years. However, while May was greeted by drummers and a red carpet, Buhari has kept as low a profile as possible on his UK visits. The septuagenarian president spent three months in London in 2017 on sick leave with an unknown illness thought to be cancer. He was not seen for two months and his aides refused to say what was wrong with him. His deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, ran the country in his absence. Buhari’s health appears to have improved since, though he almost never speaks to the media so it is difficult to judge. At a joint press conference with Donald Trump in Washington in April, Buhari read his speech from a piece of paper, hardly raising his eyes and appearing frail in stark contrast with Trump’s energetic bombast. He gave short, artless responses to obviously planted questions from pro-government Nigerian journalists. According to the Financial Times, after their meeting Trump commented that he never wanted to meet someone as “lifeless” as Buhari again. In Abuja with Emmanuel Macron three months later, Buhari looked far better, smiling as he gave apparently unscripted remarks and joked with the French president about his trip to the Fela Kuti shrine. Muhammadu Buhari and Donald Trump at a White House press conference in April . Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA Since then, however, Buhari has spent 10 days in London, ostensibly on vacation, but speculation was high that he was there to see his doctors. Political intrigue is thickening ahead of next year’s presidential election. Buhari has announced he will run again, but there has been a spate of defections from his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). One of the senators who left is due to announce his intention to run against Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday, attracting large crowds just as May arrives. Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano with many votes behind him, will put himself forward for the main opposition People’s Democratic party (PDP). Many Nigerians are disillusioned by a lack of progress made by Buhari’s administration. Promises to fight corruption and restore security have not been fully met. The Guardian revealed last month that thousands of people who had fled Boko Haram were being sent back to the ruins of their houses in unsafe garrison towns, in an apparent attempt to persuade voters that the extremist group has been defeated.<doc-sep>
British Prime Minister Theresa May and President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja during the Prime Minister's visit to Nigeria on Wednesday August 8, 2018. (CNN) — British Prime Minister Theresa May Wednesday left Nigeria after a whistle stop trip to Africa’s most populous nation during which Britain signed agreements aimed at boosting economic and security ties between both countries. May arrived in country’s capital Abuja on Wednesday and met with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, where they both witnessed the signing of the two separate bilateral pacts. May is on a three-nation African tour to drum up new business ahead of Britain’s scheduled departure from the EU next March. She pledged the UK’s support for Nigeria particularly in areas of security, trade, asset recovery and its fight against corruption. During the trip, she told reporters: “We have long-standing relations with Nigeria and long-standing, close commercial ties with Nigeria. There are British companies that have been here in Nigeria for many, many years. We want to enhance those trading links.” President Buhari who declined to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) trade deal involving 16 African countries in April, said Nigeria was closely following the Brexit discussions. Nigeria Presidency Theresa May and Muhammadu Buhari witness as Nigeria National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno and British Deputy National Security Adviser, Christian Turner sign the Bilateral Agreement on Defence and Security Partnership in Abuja on August 29, 2018. ”We are nervously watching the development about Brexit because we know that the relationship had been on for a long time. I assure you that I am prepared to strengthen the relationship between our two countries,” Buhari said. He also thanked Britain for training the armed forces in their fight against the insurgency in Nigeria’s north-east, where terror Boko Haram has waged a decade-long war, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions internally. ”I am very grateful to the British government under your leadership for the help in security, particularly your training team that is in our institution in Kaduna,” Buhari said. After her meeting with Buhari, May flew to Lagos, where she met with victims of human trafficking at an event organized by the Salvation Army and local NGOs.