Don’t Write Off Nigeria Over Isolated Security Issues – Tuggar Tells Investors

Yusuf Tuggar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, advised foreign investors yesterday not to evaluate Nigeria’s potential based solely on individual security occurrences. According to Tuggar, these examples did not accurately represent the long-term investment fundamentals of Africa’s biggest economy.

Tuggar acknowledged Nigeria’s security issues while speaking to CNN on the fringes of the current World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. However, he emphasized that the administration was aggressively addressing them and that they were localized.

According to him, the propensity to generalize insecurity throughout the nation has frequently resulted in inflated risk perceptions that have concealed potential in important industries. He called on the world community to reconsider its perception of Nigeria.

Nigerians are among the most diverse people on the continent, according to the minister. He emphasized the nation’s progressive macroeconomic reforms and the Bola Tinubu administration’s continuous attempts to improve governance.

According to Tuggar, investors should have a more nuanced perspective on Nigeria, evaluating the nation on its unique qualities rather than making generalizations, even though no nation is immune to security problems.

“I think it would be nice to see (Nigeria) as a very diverse country that actually has not fared bad compared to countries that are more homogenous,” he said to CNN. that notwithstanding some peripheral or even conflict zones in border areas that are currently cascading downward, we have been coexisting peacefully.

However, in order to identify the appropriate remedies, it is crucial to define it for what it is. We have a number of activities, including forest guards. We had actually performed admirably in the battle against Boko Haram.

The minister refuted what he saw as the misrepresentation of both the Nigerian and African situations, stating that many of the allegations are exaggerated.

“Some of the conversations that are taking place here also have to do with Africa’s risk bias, where the issue of risk, particularly geopolitical risk, is overhyped when it comes to Africa, which doesn’t apply in other parts of the world,” he stated.

Therefore, it is crucial that we examine the advancements made by the Tinubu government in macroeconomic reforms, such as the tax reforms that facilitate investment in Nigeria, the reduction of corporate income tax, and the foreign exchange reform.

“We have $43 billion in foreign reserves, so we can come to Davos and use our Nigerian cards, which are limitless credit cards. The yield on our Treasury bills and national bonds is between 8 and 10 percent. So let’s take a comprehensive look at Nigeria. Let’s stop focusing on a few of these isolated occurrences and using them to characterize the entire nation.

“And it’s also important to note that sometimes when we dwell on some of these incidents, sorry, when we don’t frame the narrative correctly, we actually trigger some of these incidents, because that’s when some of the bandits and terrorists try to go for innocent civilians and use them as human shields because they know they’re going to be targeted,” he continued.

Tuggar admitted that the recent coup in the Niger Republic had a detrimental impact on security in the Sahel, but he emphasized that Nigeria is still willing to collaborate with other countries in order to provide equipment and training to address the country’s security issues.

“We were trying to sort out the thousands that had surrendered,” he said. Before the coup in Niger, some were innocent victims trapped in combat zones. And since it permits the right of pursuit, Niger withdrew from the global joint task force that was functioning so effectively.

It enables Nigerian forces to track down militants in Niger and vice versa. We are pleading with prospective investors to view us in the same manner as they view other nations.

“You do not write off the entire country just because an incident occurred in a 923,000-square-kilometer country.”

The minister declined to provide a definitive answer when asked if the targets in Sokoto were targeted by the recent US-Nigeria airstrikes. He claimed that people in command of the armed forces and security were most suited to respond to such queries.

“Enough to say that certain targets were hit, and as is the case with some of these strikes, sometimes you don’t get the right target,” stated Tuggar.

However, it emphasizes how eager Nigeria, the US, and other nations are to comprehend the situation in the area and cooperate to put an end to it.

“The West African region, as well as the Sahel and Lake Shad regions in particular, are among the fastest growing regions in the world because it is a global conflict.” In the next 24 years, there will be 400 million Nigerians. The continent with the largest population will be Africa.

And it’s critical that we put an end to these wars as soon as possible to prevent them from spreading to other continents and to prevent terrorism, extremism, and other criminal activity from flourishing in the Sahel. We’re also doing a lot on a regional level.

“Nigeria is taking on a lot of responsibilities,” Tuggar said. We have a lot of obligations, and we need your help. In just one month, we have intervened in the Republic of Benin, where there was a coup attempt, sheltered an opposition leader following an election, and carried out a coup in Guinea-Bissau.

“We require support in the form of equipment, training, and—above all—understanding and appropriate framing of the events occurring in our area and the nation.”