The French government has declared its commitment to support the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) with intelligence gathering and high tech military equipment.
The French President, François Hollande, said this on Monday, after a closed door bilateral meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at Eylsee Palace in Paris.
He said the meeting with Buhari was essentially resolved around some new strategies to foster partnership and cooperation to enable Nigeria and its neighbouring countries of Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic completely stamp put terrorism through the joint action of the MJTF.
“We provide all of the support to the countries in the region which are affected by this cult and in Nigeria, we want to provide support and solidarity.”
He commended Buhari for initiating the relocation Nigeria’s highest military command to Maiduguri, the hotbed of the Boko Haram, saying it has so far produced tangible results.
“The Nigerian economy remains strong so, France wants to be doing business in the country.”
While pledging to cooperate, Buhari told Hollande that Nigeria would be depending on France and other G7 countries to help her tackle the menace of piracy and oil theft in the Gulf of Guinea.
“We have to depend on France and the other G7 countries for support to fight piracy. “Our next shopping list is going to G7 in terms of intelligence and training. Another problem is the problem in the Gulf of Guinea, from Senegal to Angola, that area is endowed with resources like petroleum and other minerals but surrounded by piracy and theft.
“We are going to depend on France and G7 countries to flush these criminals out of the region,” he said.
Buhari also stated that unemployment has been a source of worry for the government at home informed his host that his was working hard to revitalize the agricultural sector.
“We want to make sure we feed ourselves and provide security before other things are also tackled.
“That is why we focus on agriculture and mining before other infrastructure including electricity are tackled”, he said.
