President Bola Tinubu has been told not to enter into any defence agreement with the United States of America and France.
The caution is coming from the New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP, drawing government’s attention to the need to maintain a cordial relationship with affected neighbouring countries like Niger Republic and Mali, suggesting that any defence pact with either France or the United States could impact negatively on Nigeria’s existing regional relationships, aggravate already damaged bilateral relations, and thereby disrupt regional equilibrium and peace.
The party said countries like Mali, Niger Republic and Burkina Faso have recently expelled the French and American soldiers from their bases and reports suggested they are now lobbying to have a new military base in Nigeria, being at a geographically strategic location in the Gulf of Guinea.
NNPP raised the alarm through its National Publicity Secretary, Ladipo Johnson, saying that it poses serious challenge to internal peace as well as Nigeria’s relationship with neighbouring countries, particularly those in the Sahel region.
The NNPP observed that such reported defence pacts would not necessarily fulfil their stated objectives, saying similar pacts had failed in the past.
In the statement, NNPP said it was compelled to commission an expert group of researchers to look into the matter due to the general alarm it engendered and the overriding calls for caution by many respected citizens and members of the party from various parts of the country.
NNPP said that since the abrogation of the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact in the 1960’s, the country has resisted all attempts to recreate military bases in Nigeria and as such the current reported attempt must be subjected to rigorous debate and consensus from the generality of Nigerian citizens.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
