…The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed appeals to the super powers to assist the country in fight insurgency
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said the country needs sufficient arms and platforms to totally defeat terrorism and other security challenges.
He said this while appearing at a New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Thursday.
“To fight terrorists we need platforms and weapons,” he said.
He also begged the international community to assist the Federal Government tackling several security challenges facing Nigeria.
While the minister stated that foreign countries have the capacities to assist Nigeria, he then appealed to the western world not to weigh their support for the country on what he termed unsubstantiated arguments, which may lead to lessening their assistance to the present administration.
“I want to use this opportunity to say that the international community can help us better than they are doing right now.
“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,” Mohammed said.
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The minister however maintained that the country has not received the needed weapons to fight insurgency amidst other security challenges despite paying for them, and also stated that, “certain world powers have refused to even sell to us certain vital weapons.”
According to the Minister, “they have not released to us and they even refused to give us spare parts.”
While he did not disclose the countries involved in refusal to sell arms to Nigeria, the minister, however, appealed to some advanced nations saying, “They should please help Nigeria to provide us with these sensitive platforms so that we can fight insecurity more effectively.”
“They should not forget that we are fighting a non-conventional war and at the same time, these people have contacts everywhere,” he said.
Mohammed revealed that the government does not base its fight against insecurity on the purchase of weapons and deployment of military personnel only, but also geared towards the empowerment of youths via economic and social intervention schemes.
