French President, François Hollande, has announced his government’s commitment to assist the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) with intelligence gathering and equipment in fighting terrorism in Nigeria and the African sub region.
President Hollande disclosed this yesterday after a closed door bilateral meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, who is on a three-day official visit to France at the Elsee Palace in Paris. The Development came as the Defence Headquarters in Nigeria promised that the battle against the insurgents would be over soon.
Addressing a joint press conference, the French President said that his government was concerned about the increasing spate of insecurity in Nigeria and the entire West Africa and was ready to render support in tackling extremism.He said himself and President Buhari discussed during the meeting new strategies of partnership that would enable Nigeria and its neighbouring countries of Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic through the joint action of the MJTF to fight the insurgency and restore peace. Hollande explained that as an intervention approach to assist in the fight, France last year hosted a Regional Summit on Security in Paris which brought together the neighbouring countries to chat the way forward.
“We provide all of the support to the countries in the region which are affected by this cult and in Nigeria, we want to provide support and solidarity,” he noted. The French President also thanked President Buhari for his recent actions such as the movement of the military command center to Maiduguri which has helped in the fight.
He also disclosed that France has concluded arrangements to invest a total of 130million in the development of infrastructure in Nigeria for rebuilding of roads, provision of electricity and water supply. According to him, despite the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market which has affected Nigerian’s expected revenue, the country’s economy still remained strong. “The Nigerian economy remains strong. So, France wants to be doing business in the country.”
Hollande said that France intends to increase the visibility of its investors more in Nigeria. In his remarks, President Buhari thanked the French president for his government’s interest in assisting Nigeria and expressed the readiness of his administration to partner with France for the overall development of the country. President Buhari noted that with commitment from France, Nigeria’s next shopping list regarding support will move to other members of the G7. “We have to depend on France and the other G7 countries for support to fight piracy” the President said.
He said “Our next shopping list is going to G7 in terms of intelligence and training. Another problem is the problem in the Gulf of Guinea, from Senegal to Angola, that area is endowed with resources like petroleum and other minerals but surrounded by piracy and theft.
“We are going to depend on France and G7 countries to flush these criminals out of the region.” Speaking further President Buhari said that “On Nigeria’s problems, more than 67 per cent of our youths and most of them under their youthful age are unemployed.
We are finding best way in Agriculture and mining to address this before sophisticated infrastructure and security are provided. “We want to make sure we feed ourselves and provide security before other things are also tackled.
The President will today continue with the visit and hold talks with the business community in France in opening the frontier of investment in Nigeria.
Nigeria and France last year signed bilateral agreements which enables the French government to provide $1.170million soft loan through the French Development Agency, AFD, for the construction of high voltage power lines and substations that will connect Abuja with electrical distribution network.
Yesterday’s meeting, our correspondent gathered, also enabled the two leaders to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding to build a 30M project solar power plant in a rural local government of Osun State capacity of the solar power plant is 10 to 14 megawatts. Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), has reassured that the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, will soon be a thing of the past.
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