The FCT Post President Buhari Not Nigeria’s First Leader At Blair House

                              
                              

Contrary to what is widely circulated, President Muhammadu Buhari wouldn’t be the first Nigerian leader to be received as a guest at the famous Blair House. The revered guest house which is reputed to have the Abraham Lincoln room, Blair drawing rooms and library, Lee dining room, Truman study, Jackson Place Conference and Jackson Place sitting room is said to have housed a few African leaders which includes Late Nelson Mandela, while he was president of the Republic of South Africa.

His Excellency William R. Tolbert, President of the Republic of Liberia, His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, His Excellency Anwar El–Sadat, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, and His Excellency Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt. It is however worthy of note that Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was received as president John F. Kennedy’s guest, in this house in 1961.

According to the transcript of an interview conducted by Mr. Emmanuel Omatsola on behalf of the John F. Kennedy Library in Lagos on May 7, 1964, the Catholic American President who was assassinated in November 1963 in Dallas, Texas, had sir Tafawa Balewa as his guest for eight days. When asked about how he felt about JFK’s demise, “I was aggrieved,” he said.

“I was really very aggrieved when I heard of the news of the death of the late President Kennedy. I was then away from Lagos. I was at Kaduna and it came as a real shock for I had met him when I visited the United States in 1961 at his invitation. I was his guest for eight days – four of which I spent in Washington in a house just across the road opposite the White House, the famous Blair House – and I saw very much of him”.

“He was really a great man. In my discussions with him I learned quite a lot and though he was considered as young for a statesman, he was really very matured in experience. To speak of mental age and physical age, and to speak of statesmanship, I think the Late President Kennedy’s age could be regarded as matured as that of any older statesman”.

“He really worked very hard to bring about understanding between the West and the East especially, and I can remember meeting one or two Russians after his death who told me they were sad at the death of President Kennedy, because they thought he understood them and they also understood him. It was really a sad loss for the whole world, for all of us, for the West, for the East, and especially for us in Africa,” he concluded.

While Blair House is the official residence of guests of the American president, former President Jonathan and his entourage, while in office, during official visits to Washington D.C., usually stayed at the Westin Grand Hotel. At other times, he booked Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the Pierre Hotel.

President Buhari left for Washington yesterday, with his first son and 32 others and has been confirmed to stay at the official guesthouse of the U.S. President. It should be noted that he isn’t the first Nigerian leader to stay at The Blair House.

Source: The FCT Post - http://www.fctpost.com/2015/07/20/president-buhari-not-nigerias-first-leader-at-blair-house/

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