Nowhere safe globally if terrorism thrives – Lai Mohammed

Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, says terrorism is a global issue and no country is safe if it is allowed to thrive in any corner of the world.

Mohammed spoke in Washington DC as he continues his engagement of various global media outlets, global think tanks and influencers aimed at correcting wrong narratives about Nigeria.

During his respective interaction with Reuters, Washington Post and Bloomberg Quicktake, a live streaming news service, the minister underscored the need for the developed world to see terrorism as a global threat and handle it as such.

“Terrorism is global and has no boundary. For the world to be saved, every corner of the world must be saved.

“We can see from the example of the U.S., where Taliban takes over Afghanistan, a pointer to how difficult it is to fight terrorism driven by ideology.

Read also: CBN seeks organised labours support for economy growth

“The western world should look into helping developing nations like Nigeria in developing their infrastructure.

“This will help to create employment and quality livelihood that will make it difficult for ideological group like Boko Haram to recruit the youths,’’ he said.

The minister said Nigeria welcomed the support received from the U.S. and other countries in fighting Boko Haram insurgency. He added that more help especially in funding infrastructure and global support in fighting terrorism would go a long way in stamping out the menace.

Mohammed said the Afghanistan debacle should make the world appreciate Nigeria more in the methods deployed in fighting asymmetric warfare. He noted that the development had proven right Nigeria’s argument that when fighting an unconventional war, the country has to be resourceful

“If what happened in Afghanistan is something to go by, then the Nigerian Government should be given kudos for the way it has handled insurgency in the last couple of years.

“The lesson from Afghanistan today is that for over 20 years of American intervention and over a trillion dollar spent and thousands of American lives lost, it took the Taliban just few weeks to recapture Afghanistan.

“This should be a lesson for everybody that when you are fighting an insurgency or movement driven by ideology, it is always difficult to overcome and you must be resourceful, deploying both kinetic and non-kinetic approach.