OIC offers to help Nigeria end insurgency – Presidency

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has pledged to help Nigeria tackle the Boko Haram insurgency.

OIC Secretary General, Youssef Ahmed Al-Othaimeen made the appeal during a bilateral meeting on Thursday with President Muhammadu Buhari, on the sideline of the 73rd UN General Assembly in New York.

A statement signed by Buhari’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina and sent to DAILY POST disclosed that Buhari, “welcomed the pledge.”

The President also “underscored the importance of education in purging the mind of wrong indoctrination, particularly on religion,” he said.

Buhari also disclosed that the problem in Nigeria was aggravated by climate change and population explosion, emphasizing the need for the recharge of Lake Chad through inter-basin water transfer, “to take care of about 45 million people who depend on the lake for agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, and many others.”

The OIC scribe had told the Nigerian President that his organisation had passed a resolution, committing member states to support Nigeria in combating extremism.

He said that the body was ready to use its facilities and institutions to correct the wrong narrative that the Boko Haram insurgency was about Islam.

Dr Al-Othaimeen, who noted that development was essential to addressing extremism, also pledged assistance for Nigeria in that respect.