President Goodluck Jonathan has restated his administration’s commitment to taking tougher measures against the dreaded insurgents.
He stated this on Thursday in Namibia, during bilateral talks with President Hifikepunye Pohamba at the Conference Hall of the State House.
Jonathan, who is on a two-day visit to the country, solicited the support of his Namibian counterpart and other world leaders in containing terrorism across the globe.
According to him, “The issue of global terror is worrisome and in Nigeria, we believe that a terror attack on anywhere in the world is a terror attack on everyone.
“It may be more in one country compared to the other, for instance, in the North Eastern parts of Nigeria, three states out of 36 states, we are having incidence of terror.
“Initially, we handled it with kid-glove but now we have decided to be a little more forceful because we must thrash out these terror groups.
“We must not allow it to continue to slow down economic growth in that part of the country.
“With the terror attacks in that part of the country, the rest of the country feel it because Nigerians live everywhere.
“In these other parts, there is always the fear that if you do not tackle it, it will infiltrate in these other parts.
“We will work together to ensure that terror attack is stamped out globally and in Nigeria we are committed,”
On the restructuring of the United National Security Council, Jonathan said “I also believe in your philosophy that if by God’s grace, the UN Security Council will be restructured, that is, if the super powers will allow it to be restructured, Africa should be considered at least for two positions to represent the interest of African people.
“I always say it that we cannot talk of democracy when the strongest institutions globally are not democratic but dictated to by one country alone.
“If we must practice democracy and emphasise that all countries must be democratic, we need to start from these powerful UN institutions that all parts of the globe must have a say there”
President Jonathan also used the opportunity to canvass the need for African leaders to promote intra-African trade for jobs creation and the development of the continent.
He stated that “If we can consolidate the regional economic blocs to become solid, then, we can integrate the economic blocs before going to political integration.
“I always believe that our founding fathers in the days of OAU, their vision was for Africa to become a single big continent.
“I remember the late President of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, his dream was that political boundary should collapse for Africa.
“But we believe that it is good to envision that kind of development, but first, we must consolidate the regional economic blocs”.
He also reiterated the need for Africa add values to its products like raw materials, solid minerals, farm and forest produce.
President Jonathan congratulated Pohamba and the people of Namibia on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the country.
President Pohamba while speaking earlier had said that his country would forever remain grateful to Nigeria for the contribution and sacrifice towards the attainment of independence.
He stressed the need for the two countries to focus on industrialization and economic sustenance particularly in the area of agriculture, mining and tourism.
Pohamba specifically underscored the need for the both countries to jointly exploit their marine resources and water transportation for import and export.
He said that Namibia is the third most popular nation in South Africa and mining sector is the second contributor to its GDP.
After the bilateral talks, the two leaders entered a closed door session which lasted for about an hour before coming out for signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs)
11 MoUs were jointly signed by relevant Ministers of both countries.
The MoUs included Training of Namibian Foreign Relations Officers at the Nigerian Foreign Service Academy, Agreements on Youth Development and on the Waiver of Visa Requirements for Citizens of both parties holding Diplomatic and Official Passports.
Bilateral Air Service Agreement, MoU on Co-operations in the Legal Field, Extradition Treaty, Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and Technical Cooperation Agreement for the provision of Volunteers Health Professionals in Namibia under the Technical Aid Corps were signed.
The MoU also include Cooperation in the Fields of Geology, Mining, Mineral Processing and Metallurgy; Trade, Investment and Economic Cooperation
and MoU in the field of Tourism.
