H. E. Dr. Bolere Elizabeth Ketebu:

Let me start with what I think Ireland can do to assist in the fight against Boko Haram. I believe that Ireland has a lot to offer in the area of technical assistance, in particular, to the military agencies and to the joint regional task force team. The Sambisa forest where Boko Haram has been identified as preying from is a forest line that cuts across the countries in that area such as, Chad, Benin Republic and Niger. Ireland could help by building capacity in intelligence gathering and in strategy in order to fight Boko Haram insurgents.

I suggest that Ireland could provide material and military assistance, maybe some weapons or other military equipment to fight insurgency, based on the history and the known capacity of Ireland. The regional team could benefit significantly from such assistance. Today the problem is in Nigeria and before it was in Chad and who knows where it will spread to, considering that ISIS is moving from country to country. The provision of assistance on a regional basis would be very helpful.

If the UN resolution goes through with the UN Security Council it will bring into the fold more countries along the axis which may be giving immediate and remote assistance to Boko Haram insurgents. As we have seen, this group has succeeded in indoctrinating young people. Most of its evil activities, especially the bomb explosions, are carried out by suicide bombers. No rational thinking young person can afford to get himself or herself involved in suicide bombing in public places. They bomb mosques, churches, markets, schools and motor parks. Their target is not any particular group of persons or religion. In the mosques there are Muslims, in the churches there are Christians, in the markets there are both Muslims and Christians, young and old. It is difficult to identify the ideology the group is pursuing short of saying that based on what one can see physically, without knowing what their motivation is, it looks like it is a political tool, knowing that this group abhors all forms of democratic principles. Bringing the UN resolutions through can bring more countries into the fold, to pool their resources in terms of technical assistance and material support to enable us to contain the Boko Haram insurgency.

On the issue of international community efforts to contain Ebola and that the figures we have given are not consistent with other figures, according to Nigeria’s medical records we have had 20 cases and have lost seven people. This is on record. Whether the figures tally or not, the important point is that Nigeria is Ebola-free and this has been confirmed by the WHO. The strategy that was put in place obviously worked well for a country as large as Nigeria to have been able to contain the Ebola epidemic within such a short time. Although the doctors who had the primary contact with the patients paid the supreme price, it was a price that was worth all the effort and attention.

Many Nigerian asylum seekers would have come at different stages and from various places and every case should be treated on its merits. We do not know who they are and there are particular religious and socio-cultural situations in a country as large as Nigeria. No single strategy can be applied to all Nigerians because they come from different places. For example, those who come from specific states in the north eastern part of Nigeria no longer have a homeland.

Regarding unequal distribution of Nigerian resources between the north and the south, before the Boko Haram insurgency we had the Niger Delta crisis, when the Niger Delta states asked for resource control. Now that we have issues in the north, the first strategy the Government applied was to build almajiri schools. The almajiris are young men in particular of Muslim faith who are sent to live with Islamic leaders or clerics for training, leaving their families and parents.

Over time, they have built a critical mass of young male children who have no exposure to western education. They are always in motion, never settled in one place.

The Government introduced almajiri schools to enable these young children and men to acquire western education and skills. In addition, during this period, there are other programmes, especially in agriculture, that have been instituted in these north eastern states to address the issue of the mass population of young unemployed people. These are long-term strategies, and to contain the immediate problem of the violence instituted by Boko Haram, the military task force has been deployed. It has nothing to do with unequal distribution of wealth because wealth distribution in Nigeria is tied to resource production, population and other diverse parameters. Boko Haram and the insurgents in the north have not alluded to the fact that wealth is not equally distributed to them. The problem is that Boko Haram abhors western education and any form of democracy. It has nothing to do with wealth distribution.

On corruption, we already have an agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. All the Government can do is establish and strengthen the anti-corruption institutions which enable legislation. People involved in fraudulent economic acts, be they foreigners or Nigerians, will find the laws and institutions are there. There is no gainsaying the fact that the EFCC has been trying and convicting people, Nigerians and foreigners. There is no better assurance that this. People who come to do business or work in Nigeria should take the opportunity to go through the laws and know that once they are caught, foreigners receive no preferential treatment. The laws are there.

Regarding Nigerian troops being disciplined and not achieving results, these Nigerian troops are also doing very well in peace-keeping activities for the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, and the African Union, AU. This means the Nigerian troops, as a bunch, are very effective and successful. If one or two people in that bunch are caught in acts of indiscipline or acts that are unmilitary according to the ethics of their service, there are laws to take care of them. Since the action against the Boko Haram insurgency, the military has been trying some of its own people. It court martials some and prosecutes and convicts others. As a team, the Nigerian military has continued to prove itself to be worthy military ambassadors of Nigeria in ECOWAS, AU and within the country. It may not be fair to judge the whole Nigerian military based on the acts of a few. Such incidents happen everywhere.

All they need to do is to identify the culprits and make them face the full wrath of the law.

On the issue of gay people, the current law in Nigeria is against gay marriages and gay activities. Our country has its own peculiar religious and cultural beliefs and rites. That is what makes us Nigerian and that is the current law. For those who wish to practise their gay habits it is in their own interests to practise where there is no law against gay people. However, the law as it stands today in Nigeria is a reflection of our own peculiar religious and cultural conditions and situations.

We do not have concrete figures on the numerical strength of Boko Haram for the reason that one Boko Haram insurgent who has volunteered to be a suicide bomber can cause as much havoc as more than 100 or 200 troops. In other words, whether they are many or few, we have not yet seen a massive troop of Boko Haram persons causing havoc or moving but one sees the effect on more than thousands of persons created by just one insane Boko Haram insurgent who in order to commit havoc has strictly targeted public places where people gather. At present we do not have an accurate estimate of the numerical strength of Boko Haram, based on the fact that they are operating from a forest that crosses more than five or six countries in west Africa, along the Chad Basin axis.

In terms of modernisation in agriculture, for the first time the Government has introduced information technology in the management of the distribution of implements, chemicals and materials used in farming. Nigerian farmers today use solar-powered mobile phones by which means they receive alerts on current international market values for export products such as cocoa seeds and cashew nuts. They receive alerts on the distribution of fertilisers in Nigeria. In the past they had to take their products to the middle men and women to reach the international market. Because they did not have access to the prevailing prices in the international market the farmers relied solely on what the middle men or women told them.

The fertiliser supplies used to go through three or four hands resulting in unrealistic price mark-up. For example, with regard to the distribution of cassava seedlings, the use of biotechnology has resulted in cassava seedlings or stems that are pest-resistant to specific pests. Through the use of mobile phones, ICT and biotechnology, farmers can access the latest information on the current market value for their products and the availability of whatever materials or products they are looking for.

I think there is a huge opportunity for Irish and Nigerian trade relations in the area of agriculture to develop. My concern relates to the dairy market in Ireland. As a result of the fact that there are no direct air links between Ireland and Nigeria, dairy products have to be transported through various points before reaching their final destination. In terms of cargo, Nigeria receives agricultural products - flour, etc. - direct from South Africa on a daily basis. These products arrive fresh for distribution. This happens because there are direct air links. It cannot happen where produce is transported through airports in other countries and is delayed en route. There is a need to move agricultural products within the shortest possible timeframe in order to maintain their nutritional value and viability. That is why I referred to the necessity for direct air links. We stand to benefit a great deal from such links. As a result of the summit that was held, local governments in my country now wish to send some of their citizens to Ireland on farm attachments of durations of perhaps two weeks, one month or three months. When these people return home, they could then establish farms and would have working relationships or partnerships with their counterparts in Ireland. In terms of modernisation, this would benefit us a great deal.

Last but not least, I come to the matter of electricity. The Government of Nigeria recognises that the country cannot meet all of its own energy needs. As a result, it privatised power generation in the past month or two. It is now proceeding to privatise power transmission. There are international partnerships in the area of power generation and we are looking at establishing such partnerships in respect of transmission and distribution. We believe that with our public private partnership strategy in these areas, Nigeria will meet the challenges relating to energy in the near future.