President Muhammadu Buhari said he had directed that $2m of the $100m Nigeria pledged to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) be released within the week to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency.
He disclosed this in Johannesburg, South Africa at the weekend while presiding over a meeting of the African Union Peace Security Council at the ongoing 25th AU summit.
The president told the gathering that Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger were, under the auspicies of the MJTF, already working to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency.
“In this regard, the member countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and Benin met recently where far reaching decisions were taken to immediately put into operations, the Multinational Joint Task Force. To this end, the summit approved the immediate provision of $30m for the Multinational Joint Task Force.
“Consequently, out of the pledge of $100 million which Nigeria made to the Multinational Joint Task Force, I have directed that $21 million be released within the next one week,” Buhari said.
He noted that the continent was faced with conflicts of diverse forms as manifested in the crises in Burkina Faso, Mali, Libya, Central Africa Republic, South Sudan and more recently, in Burundi.
Buhari reminded the leaders of the commitment they had made during the African Union 50th anniversary in 2013 to the objective of “silencing the local guns” in Africa by 2020.
He, however, stated that with just five years remaining, the prospect of realizing that objective appeared doubtful “with pockets, individuals country and the continent as a whole.”
He said: “We’re witnesses to the rampant destruction of homes, roads, communications lines, vital infrastructures and displacement of persons, not to mention terrible loss of lives. This is true, I must add, of the north-east of Nigeria where we’re dealing with the scourge of Boko Haram.”
The president also stressed the need to immediately change the face of Africa and give hope to the hopeless.
Buhari suggested that since the meeting was aimed at discussing the situations in South Sudan and Burundi, the leaders should put those situations in a proper context.
According to him, “The people of these countries are suffering, while their political leaders are bickering among themselves.
“This is my first time of attending this meeting, AU Peace Security Council. I have the responsibility of preceeding over this meeting by the virtue of the fact that Nigeria is the chairman for the month of June 2015. I am also pleased that you have responded positively to my invitation.”
-Daily Trust
