Nigeria seeks more military ties with France to end insecurity

By Matthew Eloyi

Nigeria’s Minister of Defense, Maj Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi (Rtd), is requesting that existing bilateral military agreements between Nigeria and France be renewed to meet the two nations’ current security needs.

General Magashi made the remarks when the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Emmanuelle Blatmann, paid   him a courtesy visit at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters, Ship House, Abuja.

In a statement on Tuesday by his media aide, Mohammad Abdulkadri, the Minister said Nigeria and France are strategic partners and pointed out that the partnerships need to be rejigged to take it to higher levels of operability and deliverability.

The Minister, therefore, called for a more proactive intelligence gathering mechanism and technological support to drive a new information-sharing regime in aid of their military campaigns in the country.

Magashi went further to ask for a technological transfer to galvanise the nation’s military productive capabilities in the sector.

The Ambassador of France to Nigeria, Emmanuelle Blatmann, who was accompanied on the visit by the Defence Attache, Embassy of France in Nigeria, Colonel Guillaume Dujon thanked the minister for the audience aimed at strengthening the existing bilateral agreements between the two countries.

While requesting for a technical interface between the two parties to examine critical areas of mutual benefits in the proposed rebirth of Memorandum of Understanding, she gave assurances that her country will reinforce efforts to end terrorism in Nigeria and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

The envoy commiserated with the Nigerian Armed Forces over those who paid the supreme price in the line of duty defending the nation’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.