President Muhammadu Buhari told Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, during a bilateral meeting in New York, United States, that Nigeria is dealing with terrorist groups plaguing the country.
Buhari and Rutte met on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York, according to Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.
“We are preoccupied with security, and we are getting somewhere,” Buhari told Rutte, according to Adesina.
The president went on to say that the North-East and South-South, which were issues in 2015, were stabilizing, and that attempts to restore calm to the North-West, North-Central, and other restive areas had been stepped up.
On the economy, Buhari said Nigeria took decisions to shut the borders, “eat what we grow and curb smuggling”, insisting that if that had not been done, “we would have been in serious trouble.”
“We’re lucky to have taken the decision when we did, otherwise things would have been impossible with the advent of COVID-19.”
In response to the threat of military coups in West Africa, the Nigerian president told his visitor that he was astounded by those who tamper with their countries’ constitutions in order to stay in power longer.
He pledged that ECOWAS would take the necessary steps to resolve the situation.
Prime Minister Rutte complimented President Buhari on his leadership of a country with a population of over 200 million people, and wished Nigeria further progress.
