The President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, has appealed to the World Powers not to be weighed by unsubstantiated arguments to deny Nigeria vital platforms and weapons to fight insecurity in the country, Page 36 learnt.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the appeal on Thursday, when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Forum, in Abuja.
His words: “I want to use this opportunity to say that the international community can help us better than they are doing right now.
“To fight terrorists, we need platforms and weapons.
“When the international community is weighed by unsubstantiated arguments to deny the country of vital platforms and weapons to fight insecurity, you cannot turn round to accuse the country of not fighting terrorism.
“For more than two to three years now, we have paid for certain vital weapons that they have not released to us, and they even refused to give us spare parts.
“I think our appeal to them, is that they should please help Nigeria to provide us with these sensitive platforms, so that we can fight insecurity more effectively.”
The Minister disclosed that for Nigerians to fairly assess the efforts of the Federal Government in the fight against insecurity, they should compare where the country was pre-2015, and today.
He added that to better appreciate what the government is doing in the area of security, they should take a global survey, to understand that unrest, terrorism, and mindless violence cut across the globe.
“People should recognise the fact that today, people have weaponised the issues of religion and ethnicity.
“We are dealing with extremely unreasonable people, whether in the North-West or in the North-East.
“They should not forget that we are fighting non-conventional war and at the same time, these people have contacts everywhere”, he added.
He noted that besides kinetic deployment, the government is equally using non-kinetic approach to tackle insecurity like the economy and social intervention programmes meant to empower and engage the youths.
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