Apex northern sociocultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has commended the statement by the minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, that the federal government has no plans to allow foreign military bases in Nigeria.
ACF in a statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad Baba, in Kaduna yesterday said, “The Federal Government of Nigeria must be appreciated for taking such a bold and reassuring stance.
“For ACF, the development represents a victory for all imminently patriotic Nigerians who signalled readiness to campaign against the “rumoured” plans to host US and French military bases in Nigeria following their rejection in the Republics of Burkina Faso and Niger.”
ACF expressed its disappointment with an earlier statement, “credited to a supposedly non-governmental organisation concerned with promoting human rights, the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), supporting the possible establishment of American (US) and French military bases in Nigeria.
“ACF finds such support patently shocking, shortsighted, and against everything Nigeria stands for at the moment. We are an independent, sovereign African country in uncompromising solidarity with all sister Africans, especially ECOWAS states in the struggles against all vestiges of the intolerable stranglehold of colonialism and neo-colonialism that have for far too long held down Africa in conditions of underdevelopment.
“Enough is known of experiences of countries like Burkina Faso and Niger that have hosted foreign military bases for years. Such bases have to date served only the interests of the advanced countries.