The Nigerian government has asked the country’s Parliament to approve a loan agreement worth $ 1 billion from abroad to help fight Boko Haram.
Nigeria has two chambers of Parliament, the House of Senate (Upper House) and the House of Representative (Lower House) and the request was put before both chambers on Wednesday.
President Jonathan’s government has come under intense criticisms of not doing enough to protect civilians from Boko Haram frequent attacks which has killed thousands and left more than 200 girls in captivity.
An international attention on the Boko Haram insurgency has increased since the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok by the group in April.
The request was read to Parliament by the leader of the Senate House in which President Goodluck Jonathan said in the letter that the loan is necessary for the military to be equipped enough to fight the insurgency of Boko Haram.
“You are no doubt cognizant of the on-going and serious security challenges which the nation is facing as typified by the Boko-Haram terrorist threat”.
“For this reason, I seek the concurrence of the National Assembly for external borrowing of not more than $1 billion to deal with the situation”, the President said in the request letter read to both chambers of Parliament on Wednesday.
Local reporters say the loan would be used to upgrade the equipment, training and logistics of the security forces to enable them face Boko Haram.
Political analysts say parliament would have to debate the borrowing request and if it is satisfied with the reasons given by the President, it would then approve it.
But it was not clear the specific country the money is going to come from but many analysts believe it might come from the French Republic and its allies including the UK and the US. President Jonathan and other African leaders attended a summit held in the French capital in May which was aimed at ending Boko Haram insurgency.
An international rescue operation is still being carried out by the US and its allies to be able to locate and free the Chibok schoolgirls Boko Haram abducted on April 14.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council has said that more than 3,300 people have been killed by Boko Haram this year alone. Political analysts say this the worse year for Nigeria since Boko Haram began its campaign in 2009.
President Goodluck Jonathan has said that he would use force to eliminate Boko Haram from Nigeria to bring back the peace the country enjoyed previously.
But this promise has yielded no results as Boko Haram still attack when and where they like without any resistance from government troops.
Government troops are said to be poorly equipped in logistics, giving Boko Haram the advantage who are well equipped to stage attacks when and how they please.
Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News
Writer’s Email Address: Adamsisska@googlemail.com
[adrotate group=”15″]
