I came here on behalf of our other ECOWAS heads of state to express our solidarity with the government and people of Nigeria in the face of these terrorist attacks that have been occurring.
As you are aware, ECOWAS has a Common Anti-Terrorism strategy and as Chair of ECOWAS I have been speaking with other heads of state and they believe that we should activate the anti-terrorism strategy.
We are looking to call a meeting of our joint intelligence chiefs in Accra next week and we are inviting Cameroun and Chad to join so that together we can see how we eliminate this security threat to the sub region.
Listen to President Mahama speaking in Abuja
{mp3}mahama_boko_haram{/mp3}
I think it is good. Terrorism occurs anywhere, it is not peculiar to any country. You can be a victim of terrorism in Kenya or a shopping mall in Israel or anywhere in the world.
Nigerians shouldn’t feel that it is peculiar to Nigeria, and when terrorism happens anywhere in the world, everybody must be concerned.
So, the international effort to join with Nigeria to fight Boko Haram is a very welcome development because it is not Nigeria’s problem alone. Any destabilisation of Nigeria is a destabilisation of the whole of the West African sub region.
