President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that a stable or unstable Libya has implications for countries in the Lake Chad Basin area, including Nigeria.
Mr Femi Adesina, the president’s spokesman in a statement, said Buhari stated this when he hosted Mohammed Younis Menfi, Chairman, Presidential Council of Libya, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday, May 26.
The president said: “Republics of Chad, and Niger, have extensive borders with Libya, and they are our immediate neighbours.
“Whatever affects them affects us. The stability or instability of Libya will directly affect us.”
He stressed that the security of Nigeria was the number one priority to him, noting that “unless a country or institution is secured, there’s no way you can efficiently manage it.”
Buhari said he was happy that the Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya could personally attend the Summit of Lake Chad Basin Commission held in Abuja on Tuesday, to discuss the situation in Chad and the implications for security in neighbouring countries.
Al-Menfi said Libya was fast-evolving, and “we now have one government, active on the ground.
“We are expelling the mercenaries, and unifying the instructions.”
He said democratic elections would be held in due course, adding that the historical relationship between his country and Nigeria in the areas of oil and agriculture meant that one country could not ignore the other.
“We aspire for joint cooperation, and reactivation of previous agreements,” Menfi said.
Meanwhile, the Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, May 25, urged Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to stop running the state like his hamlet.
This was contained in a statement issued by the State Publicity Secretary of the party, Benedict Godson, who urged Ikpeazu to realise that Abia is not his personal property where he owes nobody any explanations.
According to Godson, it is unacceptable that Ikpeazu after the sacking 23 of his commissioners since January 2021 continued to run the affairs of the state as though it were a mere hamlet or a social club.
Reacting, the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, John Okiyi Kalu, said there is a state executive council in place in Abia as required by law.
“We have five commissioners including the attorney general and commissioner for justice and his colleagues for health, finance, information and works in addition to the secretary to state government and the chief of staff to the governor. In due course, the governor will expand his cabinet,” he said.
