TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari has departed the royal terminal of King AbdulAziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for Abuja.

This was after attending the 14th summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Makkah.

NAN reports that the presidential aircraft conveying the president and members of his entourage left the Jeddah airport for Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at about 2:45pm local time on Sunday.

Some senior officials of the government of Saudi Arabia led by Prince Abdullah Bin Bandar Bin Abdulaziz, the deputy governor of Mecca province, were at the airport to bid the president farewell.

Also at the airport to bid Buhari farewell were officials of the Nigerian embassy in Saudi Arabia.

While in Saudi Arabia, the president participated in the OIC summit where he noted with delight the decision of the organisation to support the inter-basin water transfer project, aimed at recharging the Lake Chad.

According to him, the shrinking of Lake Chad to about 10 percent of its original size had adversely affected over 30 million livelihoods in the sub-region.

He further maintained that the shrinking had caused severe economic deprivation and fuelled illegal migration to Europe.

The president added that it caused displacement of communities and radicalisation of youth, forcing them to join the Boko Haram group.

Buhari, during the summit, also thanked the organisation for its various interventions under the special programme for the development of Africa and the Islamic solidarity fund for development.

According to him, the robust interventions of the various OIC institutions, particularly the IDB group, had been effective in such key sectors as trade and investment, agriculture, rural development and food security.

“For instance, we in Nigeria appreciate the bank’s support for our National Food Security Programme and the various road and school rehabilitation projects and the second Niger Bridge,” he said.