The New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) yesterday told President Bola Tinubu to tread with maximum caution over an alleged signing of defence pact with the French Government or United States.
The NNPP national publicity secretary, Ladipo Johnson, who raised the alarm over such a pact, said it would have disastrous implications for Nigeria’s internal peace as well as her relationship with neighbouring countries, especially those in the Sahel region.
In a statement on behalf of the party, Johnson said such defence pacts would not necessarily fulfil their stated objectives, adding that similar pacts had failed in the past.
He recalled that Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso recently expelled French and American soldiers from their bases, adding that reports suggest the expelled foreign military are now lobbying to have a new military base in Nigeria, being 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 an expert group of researchers to look into the matter due to the general alarm it engendered and that the overriding calls for caution by many respected citizens and members of the party from various parts of the country.
Going down memory lane, the NNPP stated that since the abrogation of the Anglo-Nigerian defence pact in the 1960s, the country has resisted all attempts to recreate military bases in Nigeria and as such the current reported attempt must be subjected to rigorous debate and consensus from the generality of Nigerian citizens.
The party drew attention to the need to maintain a cordial relationship with affected neighbouring countries like Niger and Mali, suggesting that any defence pact with either France or the United States could impact negatively on Nigeria’s existing regional relationships, aggravate already damaged bilateral relations, and thereby disrupt regional equilibrium and peace.
“Moreover, a new defence pact of this nature will likely compromise our national interest, sovereignty and independence as well as further worsen the current traumatic economic situation of our country.
“Indeed, contrary to justification, the defence pact in the Sahel failed to actually achieve the key objective of fighting terrorism in the region. Based on this, the NNPP is gravely concerned, as a patriotic Political Party with the long-term interest of our nation at heart, to advise the Federal Government to have a hard-headed look at the complications inherent in signing any defence pact with the French or American Governments.
“We have to be extremely cautious on this matter of defence pacts with both France and the United States”, the statement concluded.
