President Goodluck Jonathan said today in far away Davos, Switzerland that the attractive rewards gotten as ransom for hostage taking and drugs trafficking was responsible for the increasing rate of terrorism in the African continent.
He also justified his decision to send Nigerian troops to Mali, saying it was based on the need to insulate Nigeria from the activities of the insurgents and save the sub region from terrorism.
Speaking on the theme “De-Risking Africa” as one of the panelists at an interactive session of the World Economic Forum taking palce in Davos, Jonathan said terrorism was also the outcome of the Libyan crises, noting that terrorists will always want to instigate crises because of the money they make out of it.
He, however, appealed that Africa needed the cooperation and support of the International community to deal with terrorism.
According to the president, the deployment of Nigerian troops to the Mali was to avoid the crisis in that country from spilling over into other West African countries, even as he warned that if the crisis was not properly handled, Africa stood at risks of being ravaged by terrorists who have the potentials of increasing investment risks in the continent.
He said, “One fundamental problem in Mali is the issue of governance and religious extremism. The terrorists aspect and issue of hostage taking for the purposes of ransom and drug traffickers happened because of the crisis in Libya and of course the terrorists will always want to instigate crisis because they make money out of it” adding that “if we do not contain the problem of Mali, definitely it will affect other African countries and that is why Nigeria had to move fast and we thank the government of France”.
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