NNPP warns FG against defense pact with US and France

The New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has warned the Federal Government to exercise extreme caution in signing any defense pact with the French government or the United States.

The party, in a statement issued in Abuja by National Publicity Secretary Ladipo Johnson and made available to Tribune Online, raised the alarm over such treaties having disastrous consequences on internal peace “and also on our relationship with our neighbors, especially those in the Sahel region .”

The NNPP added that such reported defense pacts would not necessarily meet their stated objectives as similar pacts had failed in the past. “Countries including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have recently expelled French and US soldiers from their bases and reports suggest they are now lobbying for a new military base in Nigeria, in a geographically strategic location in the Gulf of Guinea.”

The statement noted that the National Chairman of the NNPP, Dr. Ajuji Ahmed, was compelled to commission a group of experts to investigate the matter due to the general alarm it caused and the overriding call for caution from many respected citizens and members of the NNPP party from different parts of the country.

“Going back down memory lane, the NNPP stated that since the abrogation of the Anglo-Nigerian defense pact in the 1960s, the country has resisted all attempts to recreate military bases in Nigeria and that the current reported attempt should therefore be subjected to rigorous debate and consensus from the majority of Nigerian citizens.”

The party, however, drew attention to the need to maintain cordial relations with affected neighbors such as Niger and Mali, saying that any defense pact with France or the United States could adversely impact Nigeria’s existing regional relations, could aggravate the already damaged bilateral relations and disrupt the situation, regional balance and peace.

“A new defense pact of this nature is likely to endanger our national interests, sovereignty and independence and further worsen our country’s current traumatic economic situation.

“Indeed, contrary to what is justified, the defense pact in the Sahel has failed to effectively achieve the main objective of the fight against terrorism in the region. On this basis, the NNPP is deeply concerned, as a patriotic political party that has the long-term interest of our nation at heart, to advise the Federal Government to take a look out loud at the complications inherent in signing a defense pact with the French or US governments. We must be extremely careful in this matter of defense pacts with both France and the United States,” the statement concluded.