President Buhari is the first African State Head to meet President Donald Trump since he commenced his presidency. As the discussions commenced in the Oval Office, Trump quoted it was important to meet face-to-face, "especially on terrorism and terrorism-related" issues.

Buhari began his presidency with the promise to dismantle Boko Haram from its roots but with only a year left of his first term and the grave security challenges still posed by the armed group with the recent killings purged the president to look for options and strengthen its military ties. Recent news about Buhari is that the discussions started on a positive note with President Trump recognizing the Nigerian Government effort to fight against Boko Haram and Nigeria being the first African state to join the coalition to fight against ISIS.

The meeting also signalled the removal of the long bottleneck on the military aircraft deal, which was frozen by the Obama Administration because the Nigerian air force bombed a refugee camp resulting in 100 plus casualties but right now Washington seems to go ahead with the deal recognizing the efforts of the Government to fight back terrorism.

Security was the prime topic of the talks for the two presidents, with Buhari being thankful to Trump for the military aircraft deal with Nigeria and for the presence of US military physically in his country, largely for training purposes.

The increased focus on security did not cloud the US-Nigeria economic relationship. Trump was quoted saying - “I’m pleased that Nigeria is one of our largest trading partners in the region, and we look forward to growing our trade relationship based on the principle of fairness and reciprocity.”

Adding to this, just prior the meeting, the Buhari Administration announced that it would be a constructing a new, $2 billion railroad network with a consortium headed by the US giant General Electric.

John Campbell, who is a former US ambassador in Abuja and now at the Council of Foreign Relations also quoted, "The fact that the president of Africa's most populous country is visiting Washington at all may be more important to strengthening the US-Africa relationship than any discussion of policy during the trip.”

Recent news about Buhari states that the meeting seemed positive. A very welcome result of the meeting was the approval of the repatriation of the stolen Nigerian funds hidden in the US banks. The amount mounts to a staggering $500 million, and the repatriation signals a long and sustainable US-Nigeria partnership ahead.