The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has pledged to offer necessary assistance to Nigeria in its fight against insurgence and terrorism. The Pakistan Defence Adviser, Col. Muazzam James stated this in an interview with newsmen after a ceremony to mark National `Defence Day` of Pakistan on Tuesday night in Abuja. James said that both countries could learn from each other especially in the area of fighting insurgence and terrorism. “Pakistan is open to share all our experiences in terms of training, operation and other arsenal policies; we are open to share everything with our Nigerian government.
“Pakistan and Nigeria have so many things in common, we have similar challenges. `We need to work together, terrorism is a global phenomenal and it cannot be handled by one country, especially developing country like Pakistan and Nigeria.
“We need to work together, south-south cooperation is the best, I think Pakistan defence is offering its support to Nigeria; we can do so many thing together,” he said. He said that there had been series of exchange programmes between Nigeria and Pakistan and both countries had been assisting each other in different ways. According to him, Nigerian army officers have been to Pakistan on training, while Pakistan army have also been to Nigeria as part of training arrangement , assisting in different ways .
While commending Nigeria in its fight against insurgence in the North East, the envoy said that the Federal Government had defeated and eliminated Boko Haram in the area. The Pakistan High Commissioner to Nigeria , Mr Umer Farooq also in an interview called on authorities of both countries to operationalise an already signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between them.
“I will also want to recommend for the two countries, to put in place right policies that will help in operating these MoU’s in various sectors of our economy,’’ he said. According to him, both countries have a lot in common as developing nations particularly in areas of agriculture, manufacturing and industry.
The Chief Of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadiq Abubakar at the occasion commended Pakistan for its support to Nigeria in the fight against insurgence. According to him Pakistan and other friendly countries have been of help in the fight against terrorism and insurgency in Nigeria. Abubakar who said that that there were a lots things Nigeria could benefit from Pakistan stressed on the need to maintain the existing relationship between them.
Source: Vanguard
