TheCable

The United States says it has no plans to build a military base in Nigeria.

Some northern leaders have alleged that the US and French governments have been lobbying Nigeria to sign new defence pacts, allowing them to redeploy their expelled troops from the Sahel.

In a letter to President Bola Tinubu, the northern leaders warned that the presence of foreign military bases would worsen already strained relations between Nigeria and neighbouring French countries.

The northern leaders asked the president to prioritise the nation’s security over “short-term strategic alignments”.

In an interview with TVC news on Tuesday, David Greene, US chargé d’affaires in Nigeria, refuted the reports.

“I am not aware of any such conversation, and I am not really sure whose purpose it serves to agitate on this point,” Greene said.

“We will continue our very strong security cooperation with the Nigerian security services, the Nigerian military, and the Nigerian government, and that will always be in a spirit of partnership and respect for each other.”

Greene also said the US government prioritises its strategic investments in Nigeria to improve the health and humanitarian sectors.

“There is an assistance agreement that covers five years for about $2.5 billion, but we add money to it as it becomes available, and one of the areas where we have added a lot of money in recent years has been on the humanitarian assistance side,” he said.

“That has reached almost $300 million a year out of that billion, but it varies. Some years it is 900 million, sometimes it is 1.2 billion, but it is an awful lot, and we are very proud of the cooperation that we pursue through it.”