Boko haram:it's now fire for fire-jonathan

21 Mar 2014 06:25 AM
By Ben Agande Abuja - Presi-dent Goodluck
Jonathan has sent a strong message to the Boko
Haram terror group that the Nigerian government
would no longer treat it with kid gloves. Speaking in
Windhoek, Namibia during bilateral talks with
President Hifikepunye Pohamba at the Conference
Hall of the Namibia State House, President
Jonathan solicited the support of other countries in
the fight against terrorism, saying a terror attack
on one country is an attack on all countries. He
said: "The issue of global terror is worrisome and
in Nigeria, we believe that a terror attack 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 part of Nigeria, we
are having incidence of terror in three states out of
36 states. "Initially, we handled it with kid gloves
but now we have decided to be a little more
forceful because we must thrash out these terror
groups. We must not allow them 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 spread to other parts. We will work together
to ensure that terror attack is stamped out globally
and in Nigeria we are committed." Restructuring of
UN Security Council While thanking the Namibian
President for his country's support of Nigeria's
election as non-permanent member of the United
Nations Security Council, President Jonathan called
for the restructuring of the UN Security Council to
make it more democratic, adding that Africa should
be given at least two seats in the UN Security
Council. He 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 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." Economic integration
While calling on African leaders to promote intra-
African trade for job creation and the development
of the continent, the President emphasised that the
continent must consolidate the regional economic
blocs for economic integration. He said: "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 boundaries should collapse in Africa. But
we believe that it is good to envision that kind of
development, but first, we must consolidate the
regional economic blocs." While congratulating the
Namibian President on the occasion of the 24th
anniversary of the country, President Jonathan
said considering the circumstances Namibia
attained independence, the event is worth
celebrating. Pohamba calls for Nigeria, Namibia
collaboration Earlier, Pohamba had said that his
country would forever remain grateful to Nigeria for
the contribution and sacrifice towards the
attainment of the country's independence. He
stressed the need for the two countries to focus
on industrialisation and economic sustenance
particularly in the area of agriculture, mining and
tourism. Pohamba specifically underscored the
need for both countries to jointly exploit their
marine resources and water transportation for
import and export. He said Namibia is the third
most populous nation in Southern Africa and her
mining sector is the second largest 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 to sign
Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs). 11 MoUs
signed Eleven 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.
Others are Bilateral Air Service Agreement, co-
operations in the legal field, extradition treaty,
treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal
matters and technical cooperation agreement for
the provision of volunteer health professionals in
Namibia under the Technical Aid Corps were
signed. The MoUs also include cooperation in the
fields of geology, mining, mineral processing and
metallurgy; trade, investment and cconomic
cooperation and MoU in the field of tourism.