Saraki Asks Global Community to Partner Nigeria to Defeat Boko Haram
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, yesterday in New York urged the international community to partner Nigeria in its effort to defeat Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeastern part of the country.
Saraki made the call while delivering a key note address at the ongoing fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York.
According to a statement by his media aides, Saraki said the menace of insurgency and all forms of brutality being visited on innocent citizens by terrorists across the world require international collaboration to curtail as they pose great threats to global peace and democracy.
The statement further said Saraki argued that like most other countries, terrorism has become a clog on Nigeria’s path to sustainable development adding that terrorism can no longer be treated like a local problem and hence, the need for the world to join hands with Nigeria to decisively defeat Boko Haram while urgently rebuilding the North-east.
“The time to act is now. For us in Nigeria, with the new leadership at the executive and legislature, we are reacting already. You have a reliable partner to work with. Boko Haram represents the greatest terrorist threat we face. The insurgency’s senseless terror has brought untold destruction and hardship on our people in the North-east of the country. I therefore call on the international community to partner with Nigeria to defeat Boko Haram.
“Thankfully, our military has in recent times, significantly degraded the morale and capacity of the insurgents to launch attacks in the area, a feat that has since seen many settlements liberated, roads reopened and hope restored. I call on the global community to join hands with Nigeria to rebuild the overwhelming destruction of the North-east,” the statement quoted Saraki as saying.
Furthermore, Saraki said the world is today embattled by challenges with no easy answers ranging from climate change, regional conflicts and terrorism, lamenting that the conflicts have brought in their wake the problem of internal destitution, displacement and dislocation of people, adding that democracy and development cannot take place in this type of atmosphere.
He also said the challenge being faced by the global community now is how to quickly turn the tide around to achieve sustainable development.
“Since 2009, we have seen many of our innocent citizens brutally and senselessly murdered and others rendered internally displaced. The idea of a 15-year-old girl suicide bomber, wherever it may be in the world, be it in the Middle East, South America, Asia or in my country Nigeria is not the world of our dream. It is not reflective of a world where sustainable development is the agenda.
“Surely, it is not a local problem. Terrorism is an evil that we must confront. Its brutality, lack of purpose and cross border activities make it imperative that we adopt a global approach in tackling it. Terrorism in one part of the world is no more important than in another,” he stated.