Buhari leaves for G7 Summit, as protests loom

                         

President Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving Nigeria on Sunday morning, to attend the G7 Summit that is scheduled to take place in Bavaria, Germany, from June 7 to 8, 2015.In a statement released in Abuja on Saturday, June 6, Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said that the invitation was extended to President Buhari, by German Chancellor Angela Merkel even before he was sworn in on May 29th as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The invitation is a clear indication of the international community’s willingness to cooperate with the new government of Nigeria,” he said.

He added that President Buhari would not be participating in the main meetings, since Nigeria is not a member of the G7 group.

“He is in a group of seven other Heads of State who were called in as guests. He will equally be holding key side meetings with some of the seven Heads of State who will be convened at the summit.

“The international community is obviously acknowledging Nigeria’s significant role in global affairs,” Malam Garba said, “especially with the recent change in government.”

Meanwhile, no fewer than 10,000 demonstrators are expected to march through the small Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturday ahead of a summit of the world’s major economies.

By early Saturday some 1,000 protesters had gathered with tents and sleeping bags at a 3,000-square-metre camp on an open field surrounding the town.

Thousands more were arriving by bus from across the country.

Organisers of the Stop Elmau alliance expressed hope that the protests would not turn violent.

“Our protest is diverse. Even blockades and acts of civil disobedience form part of it. We are not planning any escalation,” a spokesman for the demonstrators said

More than 20,000 police have been deployed to guard the summit of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations—the US, Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Japan and Germany, which starts on Sunday.

The two-day meeting, which is to be chaired by Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is to consider a broad range of issues ranging from the current state of the global economy, to terrorism, poverty and climate change.

The anti-G7 demonstrators launched their protests on Thursday when about 35,000 held a rally in the Bavarian capital of Munich.

They called for the G7 leaders to take action to head off the threat of global warming and to address the social fallout from globalization.

Police said between 400 and 500 hooded protestors also marched through Garmisch-Partenkirchen’s picturesque streets on Friday night chanting “revolution.”

Pm news