Jonathan calls for international action against Boko Haram

President Good­luck  Jonathan  in Washington DC, has called for more  ef­fective global action and implementation of all exist­ing international protocols against terrorism and vio­lent extremism.

He made the call while presenting Nigeria’s position at the US-African Leaders Summit,  demanding a more effective international sanc­tions

regime against countries, organisations and individuals that sponsor terrorism in any part of the world.

Jonathan observed that some of the security problems being faced by Nigeria and other  African countries were transnational in scope and could not therefore be solved by any country acting alone.

He said that because terror­ism, piracy and transnational organised crimes had become global in scope, greater re­gional and international col­laboration was needed to com­bat them.

“Several African countries, including Nigeria, are now challenged by terrorism and violent extremism.  For sev­eral countries in the continent, terrorism has become a real threat to social progress, peace and security.

“The violent and criminal activities of Boko Haram in my country have captured the world’s attention.  This has been especially so since the terrorist group abducted some girls from their school dormi­tory in the North-Eastern Ni­geria in April.

“Nigeria may be the epi­centre of Boko Haram terror­ist activities at the moment, but its affiliation with interna­tional terrorist networks, dra­matically increases its capac­ity and reach beyond Nigeria’s borders.

“Nigeria is doing every­thing possible to combat Boko Haram and violent extremism. While we continue to enhance our intelligence and military capacities, we are, at the same time, working on political and socio-economic solutions. We are also building partnerships, both at the regional and inter­national levels, to combat the threat posed by terrorism in our sub-region.

“In this enterprise, we are pleased to acknowledge the supportive role of the United States.  The assistance that we continue to receive from the United States and our other international partners is proof indeed that partnership can multiply our strengths in ad­dressing  common challenges, the President said.