Buhari’s US Speech Cut Short Over Technical Hitches

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), abruptly lost connection on Thursday while addressing a United Nations (UN) event.
The virtual meeting tagged “High-Level Event on Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond”, was at the instance of the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres.
Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and his Jamaican counterpart, Andrew Holness, co-hosted the high-level discussions, with over 50 world leaders participating.
Buhari’s connection from Abuja had hitches right from the start, as he went on and off for seconds before the video connection went off completely, The PUNCH reports.
The organisers quickly called on the Prime Minister of Thailand, Prayut Chan-o-cha, to make his own presentation.
Chan-o-cha too seemed to have connection issues, but he substituted his presentation with a pre-recorded video speech.
Before his connection went off, Buhari had highlighted the impact of COVID-19 on African countries, particularly their loss of revenues, making it difficult for them to fund their 2020 budgets.
He said Nigeria was hard-hit by the crash in oil revenue, the mainstay of its mono-economy.
The Nigerian leader however, informed his co-participants that his regime had introduced measures, including retooling the economy through “home-grown strategies” to ensure that the country survived the pandemic.