Yusuf Tuggar, the Minister of international Affairs, advised international investors Tuesday not to see Nigeria’s future through the lens of individual security occurrences. According to Tuggar, these cases did not accurately represent the long-term investment fundamentals of Africa’s greatest economy.
In an interview with CNN while attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Tuggar acknowledged Nigeria’s security issues. However, he emphasized that the administration was actively tackling them and that they were localized.
According to him, the propensity to generalize about instability throughout the nation has frequently resulted in inflated risk perceptions that have masked potential in important industries. He called on the world to reconsider its perception of Nigeria.
Nigerians, according to the minister, are among the most diverse people on the continent. He emphasized the nation’s strengthening macroeconomic reforms and the Bola Tinubu administration’s continuous efforts to improve governance.
According to Tuggar, investors should have a more nuanced perspective on Nigeria, evaluating the nation on its own characteristics rather than making generalizations, even though no nation is immune to security problems.
“I think it would be nice to see (Nigeria) as a very diverse country that actually has not fared bad compared to countries that are more homogenous,” he told CNN. that notwithstanding some fringe or even warring areas in border areas that are now cascading downward, we have been coexisting peacefully.
However, it is crucial to identify it for what it is in order to identify the appropriate solutions. We offer a number of other programs in addition to our forest guardians. In actuality, the battle against Boko Haram had gone really well.
The minister countered that many of the charges are exaggerated and described the Nigerian and African situation as being incorrectly framed.
“Some of the discussions that are happening here also have to do with Africa’s risk bias, where the issue of risk, particularly geopolitical risk, is overhyped when it comes to Africa, which doesn’t apply in other parts of the world,” he stated.
Therefore, it is crucial that we examine the advancements made by the Tinubu administration in macroeconomic reforms, including the reduction of corporate income tax, the reform of foreign exchange, and tax reforms that facilitate investor entry into Nigeria.
“We have $43 billion in foreign reserves, so we can come to Davos and use our Nigerian cards, which are limitless credit cards.” The yield on our national bonds and Treasury bills is between 8 and 10%. So let’s examine Nigeria in its whole. Let’s not let a few isolated episodes characterize the entire nation.
“And it’s also important to note that sometimes we dwell on some of these incidents, sorry, when we don’t frame the narrative correctly, we actually trigger some of these incidents, because that’s when some of the bandits and terrorists try to go for innocent civilians and use them as human shields because they know they’re going to be targeted,” he continued.
Tuggar acknowledged the impact of the recent coup in the Niger Republic and its detrimental impact on security in the Sahel, stressing that Nigeria is still willing to collaborate with other countries in order to provide equipment and training to address the country’s security issues.
“We were trying to sort out the thousands that had surrendered,” he said. Prior to the coup in Niger, some were innocent victims stuck in combat zones. Additionally, Niger withdrew from the global joint task force that was functioning so effectively because it permits the right of pursuit.
It enables the pursuit of terrorists into Niger by Nigerian military and vice versa. We are pleading with prospective investors to view us in the same light as other nations.
“A country of 923,000 square kilometers does not have to be written off because of an incident.”
The minister declined to provide a definitive answer when asked if the latest US-Nigeria airstrikes had struck the targets in Sokoto. He claimed that those in command of the armed forces and security were best suited to respond to such queries.
“It’s sufficient to say that certain targets were hit, and sometimes you don’t get the right target, as is the case with some of these strikes,” Tuggar stated.
However, it emphasizes how eager Nigeria, the US, and other nations are to comprehend the situation in the area better and cooperate to put an end to it.
The West African region, as well as the Sahel and Lake Shad regions in particular, are among the fastest expanding places in the globe due to the global nature of the conflict. In the next twenty-four years, Nigeria will have 400 million people. The most populous continent will be Africa.
In order to prevent these wars from spreading to other continents and to prevent terrorism, extremism, and other criminal activity from thriving in the Sahel, it is crucial that we put an end to them as soon as possible. We’re also making a lot of progress locally.
Tuggar said, “Nigeria is taking on a lot of responsibility. If you look at the work we’ve done in just one month—intervening in the Republic of Benin, where there was a coup attempt, sheltering an opposition leader following an election, and dealing with a coup in Guinea-Bissau—you’ll see that we have a lot of duties, and we need your help.
“We require support in the form of equipment, training, and—above all—understanding and appropriate framing of what is occurring in our region and the nation.”
