President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged that his government will not rest until the remaining Chibok girls
kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in April 2014 are safely released
According to a statement issued
President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba
Shehu, in Abuja on Tuesday, Buhari made the pledge on Monday in Katowice,
Poland, during a bilateral meeting with Swiss President Alain Berset, on the
margins of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP24.
The Presidential aide said Buhari
had spent the whole day at the International Conference Centre, Katowice, where
he delivered his national address at the opening of the 12-day meeting of
COP24.
Shehu said the president had also
met with several world leaders and visited the impressive Nigerian pavilion at
the climate summit.
During his meeting with the Swiss
President, the Nigerian leader thanked the Swiss Confederation for its efforts
and important role as intermediaries to secure the release of some Chibok
girls.
He assured him that the issue of
the remaining kidnapped girls and other abducted persons would remain a ‘key
priority’ for the Nigerian government.
President Buhari and his Swiss
counterpart, according to the statement, discussed joint strategies to ensure
the safe return of the girls, building on the past successes of securing the
release of some of the Chibok girls and other abducted persons in the North
Eastern part of Nigeria.
The President also welcomed the
Swiss President’s commitment to continue providing humanitarian assistance to
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria and to ensure the safe release
of the abducted school girls.
”We will continue to make the
safe release of the remaining Chibok girls a priority and will welcome any kind
of support from any quarters to make this happen, ” the President said.
In separate bilateral meetings
with the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda and the Prime Minister, Mateusz
Morawiecki, President Buhari commended the country for a successful outing at
the opening of the COP24 meeting in Katowice.
The President told his Polish
counterpart that Nigeria was facing serious climate change challenges, particularly
the receding Lake Chad, which had been a source of livelihood to some 40
million people living in the region.
”Nigeria is totally committed to
global efforts to mitigate and adapt to effects of climate change,” President
Buhari told the Polish leader, whose country is the president of COP24.
In his meeting with Prime
Minister Morawiecki, the President lauded the plan by the Polish Government to
open a Trade Office in Lagos soon, promising that “investors who look to
Nigeria can be ‘guaranteed’ of safe returns on their investments.’’
He said: ”We have a vibrant and
active young population and our government is doing so much on the Nigerian
economy, including diversifying to non-oil sectors.
”We welcome increased cooperation
with Poland and will encourage investments in other sectors of the economy like
solid minerals and information technology.’’
Morawiecki told President Buhari
that traditionally 96 per cent of oil imports to Poland came from Saudi Arabia
and Russia, adding ”but now we are looking at importing oil from Nigeria.”
The Prime Minister noted as the
fastest growing economy in the European Union, Poland had identified Nigeria,
Egypt and South Africa, as three top investment destinations in Africa.
”We want the hub of our
investment destination to be in Nigeria,” he added.
The Polish Prime Minister
welcomed the pledge by the Nigerian leader to immediately put in place a
framework to encourage more Polish investments in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the President’s
bilateral meeting with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Van der Bellen,
focused on the challenges of Lake Chad and what was required to recharge it.
While noting that the Lake faced
the two challenges of technology and financing, President Buhari told the
Austrian leader that enormous financial resources and technology were required
to transfer water to Lake Chad from the Congo Basin.
Van der Bellen, who indicated his
country’s interest to cooperate with Nigeria on recharging the Lake Chad,
talked about climate change challenges in Austria including drought, glaciers
melting, among others.
President Buhari also met with
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and both leaders followed up on their past
discussions, during their last meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, in July,
which centred on trade, investments and partnerships in agriculture.
The President welcomed the
proposal by the Dutch Prime Minister to visit Abuja soon and promised that the
Nigerian government would continue to provide a conducive business environment
for existing and prospective Dutch investors.
On the sidelines of COP24,
President Buhari also met with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Jüri Ratas.
The Prime Minister of the
Northern European country sought Nigeria’s support on its bid for a
non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for 2020 to 2021.
“The two leaders also discussed
bilateral cooperation and climate change mitigation,’’ the statement said.
What a politics? is it now you are working seriously on how to release them? because election is around the corner
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