Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin , the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has called on the US-led coalition of nations who are presently fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq to lend extend their force of arms to Boko Haram insurgents Nigeria. He made the clarion call at the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN)’s annual dinner held on Sunday, October 5, 2014 at Hilton Hotel in New York City.
Babatunde Osotimehin in his discussion analyse the trend of transformation of Boko Haram sect from a local religious association sect to a group allied to Al-Qaeda and other insurrectionist groups in the world.
In his statement “We need to be careful as Nigerians because Boko Haram fighters are trying to take roots and do things we are not used to,” he warned.
Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, the former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, in addition to the said issues added that the participants should see fight against terrorism as collective struggle to save Nigeria as a county.
“I’m happy that the Nigerian government have decided to fight fire for fire,” he said. The former Nigerian Minister of External Affairs however added that the government has to do more. “It’s the government that we have to hold accountable. The president has woken up. The military has done better.”
Prof. Ade Adefuye, Nigerian ambassador to the United States, defended the government’s forceful method to respond to the insurgency. He believed that the missing Chibok girls could have been rescued had the government employed the fire-to-fire method on time;
“There is no reasonable government in the world that won’t do anything to stop this scourge,” he said. “To accuse the government of indifference is not only inhuman, it is sinful.”
Ozonnia Ojielo, concluded the meeting by imploring Nigeria to see the strive towards one Nigeria and the war against terrorism beyond religious crisis but an integrated force against misconceived fanatic and political hoodlums.
