The United States Government has said there are no signs that Nigeria will disintegrate before, during or after the February general elections.
While explaining that Nigeria is facing “big challenges,” the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, stated that the problems at stake were surmountable.
According to the American envoy, Nigerians should “throw out of the window” the idea from “some think-tank or somebody outside the (US) government” stating that Nigeria would fall apart in 2015.
Entwistle spoke in Lagos on Thursday during an interactive session with journalists on the recent donation of a US naval ship, christened NNS Okpabana, to the Nigerian Navy.
The US diplomat said, “I have been plagued by the question (on Nigeria’s possible disintegration in 2015) and I have gone back to look and I can’t find any government report that said Nigeria would disintegrate in 2015. Maybe some think-tank or somebody outside the government said it; I don’t know.
“But in my opinion as the US Ambassador to this country, I am not worried in the least that Nigeria is going to disintegrate in 2015. Regardless of what someone may have said, the question is that we are now here in 2015: Do we see signs that Nigeria is going to disintegrate or fall apart or something? I don’t know what you think. But I don’t see those signs.
“But I see signs of growth, optimism and I see that to minimise the challenges that you have, in this life, you have to keep on keeping on and I think the future is quite bright.”
Entwistle added that if the Federal Government did what would need to be done in the coming years, especially as pertaining to “security, corruption and all of these things,” the future of Nigeria would be “very bright.”
He debunked the insinuation that the President Barack Obama administration has imposed “an arms embargo” on Nigeria following the reported refusal of the American government to sell Cobra helicopters to the Federal Government to prosecute the ongoing war against terrorism.
Citing human rights considerations for the development, Entwistle hinted that the US Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria, was “still talking about a number of other types of equipment and different types of helicopters that might be more appropriate” for the Nigerian military services.
Respecting human rights among the civilian population, he argued, should not be an impediment to fighting terrorism in the three north-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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