The Minister of Defence, retired Maj.-Gen. Bashir Magashi has called for a new border template to minimise cross-border crimes.
This is contained in a statement in Abuja, on Tuesday by Mohammad Abdulkadri, Special Assistant to the Minister on Media and Publicity
Magashi made the call during a meeting with a delegation of experts from the United Nations Independent High Level Panel on Security, Governance, and Development in the Sahel.
The minister noted that Nigeria was doing pretty well under the watch of the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari in curtailing terrorists, especially in the North Eastern part of the country.
He also noted that Nigeria was contributing more than other cooperating states in counterpart funding, deployment of manpower and provision of other logistics in Multinational Joint Task Force, MNJTF.
He however made a case for improved resources on the part of the United Nations towards the promotion of global peace and regional economic prosperity to reduce the high level of poverty at all levels.
The Head of the UN Mission and Leader of the four-man delegation Mr. Abdullahi Boureima alongside Nigerian panelist Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim said the panel’s mandate includes security, governance, and development concerns facing the Sahel Region.
They explained that part of the reasons for the meeting in all countries of their assignments including Nigeria was to articulate and aggregate views on how to effectively surmount the existential challenges facing the Sahel Region.
While thanking the minister for approving the visit, they said capturing Nigeria’s perspective on the way forward was germane to their assignments which set the tone for the meeting.
The meeting had the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Defence Dr Ibrahim Kana, in attendance as well as other top management, and the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Danlami Ibrahim.
