The Nigerian Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has asked the international community to partner with Nigeria to defeat Boko Haram in the north eastern part of the oil-rich country.
Senator Saraki made the appeal on Wednesday while delivering his keynote address at the 4th World Conference of Speakers of parliaments at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
“Clog In Our Wheel”
He stressed that the menace of insurgency and all forms of brutality being visited on innocent citizens by terrorists across the world required international collaboration to curtail it, as terrorism poses great threat to global peace and democracy.
“Terrorism has been a clog in our wheel to sustain real development. Since 2009, we have seen many of our innocent citizens brutally murdered and others rendered internally displaced.
“We have seen over 200 girls from Chibok that took the world attention. The idea of a 15 year old girl as a suicide bomber, wherever it might be in the world, be it Middle East, be it South America or my country Nigeria, is not the world of our dream.
“It is not reflective of a world where there is sustainable development in its agenda.
“Surely it can not also be treated as a local problem.
“Terrorism is evil that we must confront,” he said, stressing the need for a global approach to be adopted in tackling it.
The most recent attack by the extremist group occurred on Monday, August 31, where the dreaded terror group allegedly shot 80 people in three villages in Borno State.
Troops of the Nigerian military are tackling the terrorist group in heightened counter-terrorism operation in the north-east.
President Muhammadu Buhari had given Service Chiefs an ultimatum to end the acts of terrorism by December 2015.
On August 31, the Nigeria Air Force announced the full deployment of its aircraft to combat the security crisis in Nigeria’s north-east.
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall, Sadique Abubakar, who announced the deployment, said the current security challenges in Nigeria heavily relied on air power and that discussions were ongoing with the Presidency to ensure the Air Force was battle ready.
He urged Senior Officers of the force to ensure that integrity, excellence and service delivery were prioritised, to eliminate mediocrity and corruption in the Air Force.
