TheCable

Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, says the international community’s engagements with Nigeria need to be “constructive” — not “alarmist”.

He said this on Monday in reaction to the recent terror alerts issued by some foreign countries regarding the likelihood of attacks in Nigeria.

The UK, US, and Canada had recently asked their citizens in Nigeria to be cautious about the likelihood of attacks in parts of the country.

However, President Muhammadu Buhari had said the terror alerts do not mean an attack is imminent.

Speaking on the development on Monday, Onyema said countries should be careful about passing messages that could cause panic.

“There’s a foreign dimension to this issue, as alerts are always issued by foreign countries, with missions here in Nigeria,” the minister said.

“Now, the ministry of foreign affairs, as well as the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, have been working very closely to fully get on top of the situation, but also to engage with our foreign partners, first of all, to mitigate and blunt any threat that there could be from outside the country, but also working and engaging with the foreign missions within the country to ensure that whatever we do, whatever we say, is constructive and should not, in any way, cause unnecessary alarm, and in any way destabilise the country.

“So, just to reassure the country that we are in full engagement with foreign partners and that our security personnel and agencies are fully on top of the situation, and that as they have said, there’s really no cause for alarm.

“We want to push more for greater coordination and synergy with our foreign partners and make sure that cooperation with them is a constructive one, not an alarmist one.”