Nigeria’s Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, yesterday urged the international community to partner with Nigeria to defeat Boko Haram insurgency in the north-eastern part of the country.

Saraki made the admonition while delivering his keynote address at the ongoing 4th World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments, organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York.

He however noted that “the menace of insurgency and all forms of brutality being visited on innocent citizens by terrorists across the world require international collaboration to curtail as they pose great threat to global peace and democracy.

Like most other countries, according to the Senate President, terrorism has become a clog on Nigeria's path to sustainable development.”

Stating that terrorism can no longer be treated like a local problem, he explained that it was time the world joined Nigeria to decisively defeat Boko Haram while urgently rebuilding the Northeast part of the country.

His words: “The time to act is now. For us in Nigeria, with the new leadership at the executive and legislature, we are reacting already. You have a reliable partner to work with.

“Boko Haram represents the greatest terrorist threat we face. The insurgency’s senseless terror has brought untold destruction and hardship on our people in the North-East of the country. I therefore call on the international community to partner with Nigeria to defeat Boko Haram.

“Thankfully, our military has in recent times, significantly degraded the morale and capacity of the insurgents to launch attacks in the area, a feat that has since seen many settlements liberated, roads reopened and hope restored. I call on the global community to join hands with Nigeria to rebuild the overwhelming destruction of the North East.”

He lamented that the conflicts have brought in their wake the problem of internal destitution, displacement and dislocation of people, adding that democracy and development cannot take place in this type of atmosphere.

He stated that the challenge the global community now faces is how to quickly turn the tide around to achieve sustainable development.

Saraki said: “Since 2009, we have seen many of our innocent citizens brutally and senselessly murdered and others rendered internally displaced. The idea of a 15-year-old girl suicide bomber, wherever it may be in the world, be it in the Middle East, South America, Asia or in my country Nigeria is not the world of our dream. It is not reflective of a world where sustainable development is the agenda.

“Surely, it is not a local problem. Terrorism is evil that we must confront. Its brutality, lack of purpose and cross border activities makes it imperative that we adopt a global approach in tackling it. Terrorism in one part of the world is no more important than in another.”

Saraki further bemoaned the plight of the internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East and other parts of the country, saying the human misery in the various camps he recently visited is horrendous.

He added: “Nowhere are these challenges more keenly felt, than in the plight of displaced persons, migrants and refugees, where due to conflict and natural disasters, citizens are bereft of human rights, even certifiable citizenship identities, such as the ongoing situations in North-East Nigeria, with the attendant shockwaves being felt in other parts of the world through the rising tides of unsafe and unregulated, emergency migration, to Europe and other regions.

“In my country alone, we have seen the displacement of over 2m persons and about 10,000 children orphaned by the Boko Haram conflict. The human misery has been unspeakable. I had the opportunity of an entire day visiting from camp to camp some of the IDP, to see first-hand the real suffering that thousands of mostly women and children are going through. It’s horrendous.”

He called on his colleagues to ensure the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through enabling laws that will ensure the smooth implementation of embedded policies and programmes for the benefit of the global state.

He added: “The legislature surely has a critical role to play in providing the underpinnings that would help create a new global regime that is able to deal with these challenges in terms of laws and oversight.”

•Photo shows Saraki making his presentation at the 4th World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments . . . yesterday in New York, USA.

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