Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai (rtd), a former Former Chief of Army Staff, COAS, has applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for rejecting The US and French military bases in Nigeria.
The former Army Chief who said this is the right to do, said “Nigeria should not allow any foreign force on its soil,” for whatever reasons.
The former Nigeria’s Ambassador to Benin Republic affirmed his position on the issue on Tuesday while speaking to some leaders of thought from the North.
The magazine reported that not a few Nigerians, particularly from the northern part of the country has advised the president not to welcome foreign military bases in any part of the country.
Burutai said Nigeria must maintained her strategic autonomy as a non -aligned country commending “the federal government for its stand against the reported planned redeployment of the US Forces that are being withdrawn from the Niger Republic to Nigeria.”
He explained that Nigerian government had rejected such overtures in 2015 when it rejected the deployment of United Nations, UN, or African Union, AU, international peacekeeping forces to fight Boko Haram insurgents on Nigerian soil.
According to him, “The Nigerian government rejected the deployment of a UN or AU international peacekeeping force to fight Boko Haram in 2014 and 2015.
“The birth of the new MNJTF with its HQ in N’djamena was the solution to a foreign force deployment that could have placed these foreign forces as interposition force between the Boko Haram territory and the Nigerian territory.
“The implication of this is that it could have given territorial legitimacy to the insurgents,” he said.
“Similarly, as COAS, I had to quickly recover Gamboru-Ngala from the insurgents to prevent the deployment of the Chadian Forces on Nigerian soil. The MNJTF Concept of Operation was to have 3 Sectors.
“Sector 1 deployed in Cameroon’s Far North Region, comprising all Cameroonian troops. Sector 2 was to be deployed in Ngamboru-Ngala on Nigerian territory, comprising all Chadian troops. Sector 3 was to remain in Baga in Northern Borno State, comprising all Nigerian troops.
“Having denied the Chadian forces deployment on Nigerian soil, Sector 2 was then deployed in Baga Sola in the Lac Region of Chad,” Burutai stated.
President Tinubu recently denied knowledge of plan by US and French bases to be stationed in the country.
The US through David Greene, its chargé d’affaires in Nigeria, has also debunked the report.
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