Battling terrorism, oil theft not easy – Buhari

Firstclass newsline gathered that president Muhammadu Buhari has said
that it is not easy for his administration to fight terrorism, oil
theft and corruption at the same time.
But he said in spite of the difficulties being faced in fighting these
scourge, his administration would not relent in eliminating the vices
from the nation's body polity.
Buhari said this when the President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbe, visited
him in Abuja on Thursday.
The President, who expressed appreciation for Gnassingbe's visit and
for his concern about regional security, said his regime was being
challenged with the Boko Haram insurgency, oil theft, illegal fishing,
oil pollution and illegal dumping of toxins in the country.
Buhari said it was not easy for his administration, which he said, was
fighting on many fronts.
According to him, the government is contending with insurgency in the
North-East and oil theft in the South-South while trying to provide
infrastructure in the country at the same time.
He said, "His (Gnassingbe's) concern about regional security made it
imperative for him to organise a summit on maritime security and
development in November to examine a lot of issues.
"As for Nigeria, we are grateful for the sympathy and the goodwill
expressed, touching on the performance of our armed forces and law
enforcement agencies, since this administration came into being. It is
not easy trying to fight on so many fronts, the North-East, the
South-South and then try to provide infrastructure in our country."
The President observed that the cooperation of the regional countries
comprising Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic had resulted in
the isolation of Boko Haram and peace in the region.
He also advised African countries to pay attention to agriculture and
manufacturing to provide jobs for the jobless.
Earlier, the Togolese President had invited Buhari to a security and
piracy summit scheduled for Lome in November.
Gnassingbe said his country was organising the summit because $7bn had
been lost to piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
The Togolese leader told Buhari that the security summit would deal
with issues of piracy, oil theft, environmental pollution, immigration
as well as human and drug trafficking.
He therefore called on African nations to collaborate to combat the
scourge and security challenges in the sub-region.
Gnassingbe commended Buhari and the Nigerian security forces for the
work they were doing to combat terrorism in West Africa.
When asked by journalists if African countries were not hosting too
many summits, Gnassingbe disagreed, saying the summits were not
enough.
He said, "Piracy alone costs the Gulf of Guinea $7bn a year, that is
what we lose for not combating it and we also know that without
cooperation you cannot combat piracy, but the first stage is to come
together and talk.
"If all the African countries are on the same page, it would be easy
to tackle the security
challenges, so we have to keep holding summits, because individual
countries cannot combat piracy effectively without cooperation.
"If you try to fight them in Togo, they go to the next country, then
you don't have the mechanism to go into the other countries. So,
summits are necessary, they are not even sufficient."
Firstclassnewsline.net