Federal Government has appealed to the world powers not to deny the country of vital platforms and weapons to fight insecurity.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed made the appeal on Thursday, August 13 when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
He said;
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.
The Minister buttressed his statement, saying;
Certain world powers have refused to even sell to us certain vital weapons. 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.
Mohammed argued 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 said to better appreciate what President Buhari’s administration is doing in the area of security, members of the society should take a global survey to understand that unrest, terrorism, and mindless violence cut across the globe.
Mohammed added;
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 northwest or in the northeast. They should not forget that we are fighting non-conventional war and at the same time, these people have contacts everywhere.
The Minister noted besides kinetic deployment, the government is equally using non-kinetic approach to tackle insecurity such as economy and social intervention programmes which are meant to empower and engage the youths.
