"Investigate how the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC and Ebony TV organized the Buhari Town Hall meeting"

The invitation to this program that was titled "A Meet & Greet with President Muhammadu Buhari in Washington, DC" was put online by the Ebony TV, the main organizer of this program for all the interested Nigerians to sign up online to attend. Many Nigerians that are living in America and Canada signed up online and got their confirmed invitation letters to this program by email. These Nigerians then made all the necessary preparations, such as, booking their hotel accommodation, arranging their transportation, taking leave from their work place to attend this program.

At about 6 PM EST on July 21, 2015, the Ebony TV started sending out cancellation emails to those invitees without given them any official explanation for what has suddenly happened. Many Nigerians who got these cancellation emails called the customer service representative of the Ebony TV that was listed on their invitation letters to find out why their invitations were cancelled. The customer service representative of the Ebony TV responded to these Nigerians that the original plan was never to put the invitation for this program online in the first instance and that the number of interested Nigerians that signed up online for this program prevented those "special selected Nigerians" by the Nigerian Embassy from getting their own invitation letters to this program that was planned for only 160 Nigerians. The action of the Ebony TV is fishy, shady, questionable and cloudy in nature. The invitation to this meeting was then replaced with the special invitation letter from the Nigerian Embassy that was made available to those specially selected Nigerians who have special connections or relationship with the Nigerian Embassy officials.

Furthermore, the other Washington based organizations, such as, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the Corporate Council of Africa and the American Chamber of Commerce where President Muhammadu Buhari was invited as the main guest made their own invitations open and public to any interested Nigerians or members of the American public online and on first come and first serve basis and with transparency. 

At the moment, there are estimated one million Nigerians in America today. A survey that was done by Houston Chronicle few years ago identified Nigerians as the most educated group in America. When the Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi visited United States in 2014. A similar program was organized by the Indian Embassy for the visiting Prime Minister to meet the members of the Indian community in America. The venue of the meeting was not in a small hall of the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, The meeting was held at the Madison Square Garden in New York and with over 18,000 Indians in attendance. Indians from all over United States and Canada graced this special occasion.

It is an international embarrassment that Nigeria, the giant of Africa failed Nigerians in America with the organization of this program by Ebony TV and the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC. I am appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari as a Nigerian that lives in America and on behalf of those affected Nigerians in America and Canada to immediately investigate why the Nigerian Embassy distributed the invitation to this program in a shady manner and then prevented many Nigerians from seeing their President that they love, cherish, admire, supported and voted for on March 28, 2015. 

President Muhammadu Buhari and President Barack Obama at the White House