Britain Announces Fresh Support for Buhari to End Boko Haram
Apparently excited by the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria's
new President, United Kingdom has openly declared its readiness to
work closely with Nigeria to end its security and economic challenges.
To start with, Britain says it is going to spearhead the group of
seven developed nations (G-7 nations) to rally necessary support for
Buhari to crush insurgency in Nigeria without further delay.
British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, announced the new posture
of his country towards Nigeria while speaking with Vanguard in Abuja
on Friday shortly after attending Buhari's inauguration as Nigeria's
5th civilian president.
Hammond led British delegation to witness the swearing in of Buhari,
who only returned to Nigeria on the eve of his inauguration, where he
had gone to rub minds with Prime Minister, David Cameron, at Number 10
Downing Street. The foreign secretary said that apart from discussing
Boko Haram challenges in G7 meeting coming up later, Britain was ready
to provide the Nigerian armed forces with needed technical and
surveillance equipment and training to be able to combat the menace of
insurgency. According to him, it is imperative that Boko Haram must be
crushed in order to give the new administration the opportunity to
settle down and tackle the economic development of Nigeria and give
succour to the citizens. Hammond said: "The emergence of Buhari has
given us a new opportunity to help Nigeria with both technical and
surveillance support to tackle the problems of Boko Haram. "But we can
only do that if the Nigerian armed forces comply with human rights
requirements. Happily BUhari has given us that assurance and we are
going to help Nigeria in any way possible to tackle its problems. The
foreign secretary announced that with Nigeria/British trade volume
peaking at £7 billion per year, Britain was ready to drive more
investments into Nigeria to help boost its economy and stabilise the
country, using Nigerian businessmen in the UK as the vehicle. Hammond
said that Britain was excited about what he called "Buhari's realistic
agenda" to tackle the economic and socio-economic challenges so as to
give hope to the masses. Saturday Vanguard learnt that the dispatch of
Hammond by David Cameron to attend Buhari's inauguration marked the
beginning of fresh level of cooperation between Nigeria and Britain in
recent years. The relationship between the two countries hit the rocks
following the alleged refusal by the European nation to sell military
hardwares to Nigeria to tackle insurgency on the allegation that
Nigerian troops could use them to commit human rights abuses. Before
Hammond's visit on Thursday, the last British Foreign Secretary to
visit Nigeria was Jack Straw about nine years ago.
new President, United Kingdom has openly declared its readiness to
work closely with Nigeria to end its security and economic challenges.
To start with, Britain says it is going to spearhead the group of
seven developed nations (G-7 nations) to rally necessary support for
Buhari to crush insurgency in Nigeria without further delay.
British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, announced the new posture
of his country towards Nigeria while speaking with Vanguard in Abuja
on Friday shortly after attending Buhari's inauguration as Nigeria's
5th civilian president.
Hammond led British delegation to witness the swearing in of Buhari,
who only returned to Nigeria on the eve of his inauguration, where he
had gone to rub minds with Prime Minister, David Cameron, at Number 10
Downing Street. The foreign secretary said that apart from discussing
Boko Haram challenges in G7 meeting coming up later, Britain was ready
to provide the Nigerian armed forces with needed technical and
surveillance equipment and training to be able to combat the menace of
insurgency. According to him, it is imperative that Boko Haram must be
crushed in order to give the new administration the opportunity to
settle down and tackle the economic development of Nigeria and give
succour to the citizens. Hammond said: "The emergence of Buhari has
given us a new opportunity to help Nigeria with both technical and
surveillance support to tackle the problems of Boko Haram. "But we can
only do that if the Nigerian armed forces comply with human rights
requirements. Happily BUhari has given us that assurance and we are
going to help Nigeria in any way possible to tackle its problems. The
foreign secretary announced that with Nigeria/British trade volume
peaking at £7 billion per year, Britain was ready to drive more
investments into Nigeria to help boost its economy and stabilise the
country, using Nigerian businessmen in the UK as the vehicle. Hammond
said that Britain was excited about what he called "Buhari's realistic
agenda" to tackle the economic and socio-economic challenges so as to
give hope to the masses. Saturday Vanguard learnt that the dispatch of
Hammond by David Cameron to attend Buhari's inauguration marked the
beginning of fresh level of cooperation between Nigeria and Britain in
recent years. The relationship between the two countries hit the rocks
following the alleged refusal by the European nation to sell military
hardwares to Nigeria to tackle insurgency on the allegation that
Nigerian troops could use them to commit human rights abuses. Before
Hammond's visit on Thursday, the last British Foreign Secretary to
visit Nigeria was Jack Straw about nine years ago.
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