The United States government declared its readiness to lend support to Nigeria towards the fight against insecurity. The assurance was given during a meeting between a visiting US Deputy Security Adviser, Jonathan Finer, and Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, where security issues were discussed.
The US official said his country was willing to support Nigeria.
Speaking to journalists after a closed-door meeting, Finer said, “Going forward, the security issues are very pretty whether it’s terrorism or piracy, the US can support.
“You mentioned democracy. The president is very much looking forward to convening the summit for democracy in December. The pillar of this summit is going to be issues relating to election, corruption.
“Nigeria is not just a partner of the US but also a friend, which is much appreciated. The time that we spent and the conversations we had are very constructive and the partnership over all.
“I will not repeat all of the minister’s briefing but it does speak the enormous agenda that the two countries share. We talked about the pandemic and the delivery of vaccines and the next phase of this which is actually making sure that those vaccines are administered and get into peoples arms, which is something we want to support.”
On climate change, Finer said the US “welcomes Nigeria’s commitment to increase its ambition, when it comes to climate change and we hope that it continues. There are no significant issues on our mutual agenda that can be addressed without working together. So, we are committed to continue doing that.”
Onyeama said the discussion was on a broad range of issues. He said, “We talked about the security situation of the country: banditry, Boko Haram, secessionist groups and other acts and challenges to insecurity, including that of Guinea and how we can cooperate with the US in addressing all the issues.
“While acknowledging the tremendous support from the US in the area of security, the recent delivery of A29 fighters and supporting other areas, we assessed the situation in the Sahel beyond Nigeria, right up to Libya, and how we can work closely together to address the terrorist challenges and the security situation in Nigeria.”
On twitter ban, the minister said, “We talked about the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria and how that is progressing,” adding that the issue of COVID-19 also came up at the meeting.
He stated, “We talked about the COVID-19 context and the US has been very generous. Just very recently, last week, they provided, again, vaccines to Nigeria, five million, and then another vaccine of 3.5 million that were delivered to the Nigerian government. We are grateful to the US government for this generosity
