The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to join hands with other nations in the fight against terrorism across the world.
The NGF, an umbrella body of the 36 state governors, which made the call at the end of its meeting on Monday in Abuja, urged the United States authorities to reverse their decision of including Nigeria in their list of terror nations in the spirit of the long standing diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
The Kwara State Governor, Dr Bukola Saraki, who is the Chairman of the Forum, told journalists after the closed door meeting with his colleagues, that the actions by the US authorities were harsh and unfair.
“We believe that the decision of the US authorities have far reaching negative socio-economic and political implications on Nigeria as a nation.
“The designation of Nigeria as a country of interest is arbitrary, discriminatory and completely inconsistent with the spirit of the US constitution and best practices in international diplomacy.
“The 36 governors of the federating states in Nigeria under the platform of the NGF, hereby call on the US authorities to immediately remove Nigeria from the list of “country of interest’’ as published by its Transport Security Administration (TSA).
“This is not the time for unrealistic finger pointing but to join hands together in fighting terrorism in all its ramifications,’’ Saraki said.
He said the US government should not hold Nigeria accountable for the irresponsible act of one of its citizens, Umar Abdul Mutallab, who attempted to bomb a US-bound flight on December 25, 2009.
“This characterization of Nigeria by the US Transport Security Administration (TSA) because of an isolated incident by a clearly troubled and misguided individual, who happens to be a Nigeria, is unfair,” Saraki said.
He said that the fact that Abdul Mutallab`s father reported the matter to the US security authorities long before the incident happened, showed that neither the family nor Nigeria supported Umar`s actions. The governor noted that Nigeria had never supported or condoned any act of terrorism but had been involved in peacekeeping operations around the world.
He said that Nigeria had also demonstrated strong commitment and had taken practical steps as well as strengthened international cooperation to address the challenges of terrorism.
“In specific terms ; Nigeria has ratified several of the universal instruments relating to the prevention and suppression of international terrorism including financing convention.
“Nigeria has also taken measures to implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions, including the circulation, monitoring and updating of the United Nations Consolidated Terrorist Watch list to relevant domestic authorities for purpose of compliance,” Saraki said.
He said the willingness of the Nigerian government to subject itself to evaluation by the International Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) in 2006, was a clear demonstration of its commitment to fight terrorism and terrorism financing.
Source African Press Agency
