INSECURITY: We have approached Turkey for assistance — FG
By KEMI KASUMU
The Turkey approach, it has been Saud, may therefore be untenable as Tinubu has allegedly gone deep allowing Trump divide his people along religious line, and will now be seen as using Turkey to placate the already embittered Muslims.
The Federal Government has disclosed that it is seeking support from Turkey as part of efforts to address the country’s persistent security challenges.
President Bola Tinubu made this known on Friday while meeting with a delegation of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), led by its President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, at his Lagos residence.
The disclosure was contained in a statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
The disclosure was coming on the heels of United States President Donald Trump’s repeated statements that his military operations fighting terrorism and establishment of healthcare delivery services in Nigeria were for the Christians only and not for others.
The Trump’s statements have punctured what could have been acceptable interventions as, according to sincere public affairs analysts across sectors, they are more to cause division of Nigerians along religion line and so will not be tolerated.
The Turkey approach, it has been Saud, may therefore be untenable as Tinubu has allegedly gone deep allowing Trump divide his people along religious line, and will now be seen as using Turkey to placate the already embittered Muslims.
President Tinubu urged CAN to collaborate with his administration in pursuing Nigeria’s collective goals, noting that several measures introduced by his government would require time to yield results.
“The mood of the nation is peaceful, although our ungoverned spaces are so large. The challenge is real, but we will surmount it. We are very religious. We are prayer warriors. We need your focus, vigilance, and cooperation,” the President said.
He added that plans for community and state policing would become a reality once the National Assembly completes the necessary legislative processes. Tinubu also explained that acquiring military hardware remains difficult due to high costs and limited availability.
“Our orders for four attack helicopters from the United States of America will take some time to arrive. We have approached Turkey for assistance,” he stated.
The move follows recent security cooperation between Nigeria and the United States in combating insecurity and insurgency. On Thursday, former U.S. President Donald Trump announced via Truth Social that U.S. forces had carried out airstrikes in North-West Nigeria, killing several terrorists.
The Nigerian government later confirmed the strikes, stating that they were conducted in collaboration with the United States.
However, the development has attracted criticism from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which faulted the Federal Government for not announcing the airstrikes before the U.S. authorities did. PDP spokesman, Ini Ememobong, said Nigerians should have been officially briefed by their own government first.
“The Federal Government should have been the first to report the news in order to properly sensitize the Nigerian populace, instead of waiting to confirm news already in public circulation, unless they were taken unawares like the rest of the citizens,” Ememobong said in a statement on Friday.
Meanwhile, Islamic cleric Sheikh Abubakar Gumi called on Nigeria to immediately suspend all military cooperation with the United States following the Christmas Day airstrikes against ISIS terrorists. In a Facebook post on Friday, Gumi warned that foreign military intervention, particularly by the U.S., could worsen insecurity rather than resolve it.
“Nigeria should halt all military cooperation with the USA immediately because of its imperial tendencies worldwide and seek the help of those neutral countries mentioned. Nigerians are too educated to be played with. This is going to be a 2027 campaign discourse,” he wrote.
The cleric urged the Federal Government to instead seek military assistance from what he described as more “neutral” countries, including China, Turkey, and Pakistan.
