Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs
Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, says calls for Nigeria to cut ties with France are short-sighted and not in the national interest.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday, Tuggar said Nigeria has always maintained a relationship with France and dismissed reports suggesting that the ties were driven by ulterior motives.
Reports alleging hidden motives from France started to swirl after President Bola Tinubu travelled to the country for a three-day state visit.
Shortly after his return, reports surfaced alleging that a French military base would soon be sited in the north-east after Femi Oluyede, chief of army staff, reportedly received soldiers from the country.
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Abdourahamane Tchiani, military leader of Niger Republic, had also claimed that France is sponsoring terrorist groups in Nigeria to destabilise his country.
Reacting, Tuggar said the allegations were insulting to Nigeria.
“We have always had a relationship with France, it did not start today and there is nothing different about our relationship with France today but it does not mean that other countries or other people have to dictate to Nigeria who it should have a relationship with,” the minister said.
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Tuggarr noted combating terrorism as one of Nigeria’s key interests with France.
“We cannot tackle the issue of insecurity in our region simply by a partnership or by being friends with the Sahelian countries. Even if you do that you still have Libya to contend with,” he said.
“I just finished describing to you the weaponry that is being churned out of Libya; training, fighters, terrorists, the criminal gangs and so on and so forth.
“To solve Libya we need a relationship with France, we need a relationship with the United States of America, we need a relationship with Russia, we need a relationship with all of these major powers.
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“You cannot say that ‘Oh no, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali have decided after all these years they no longer want to have anything to do with France therefore Nigeria must be compelled’ and meanwhile Nigeria is the senior partner in the relationship, to begin with.
“It is shortsighted, myopic, and not in Nigeria’s national interest.”
At an annual conference on foreign policy for 2025 at the Elysee Palace, French President Emmanuel Macron called Sahelian leaders “ungrateful”.
Macron also dismissed the notion that his country had been kicked out of the Sahel region.
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He said that France’s presence was no longer justified after citizens decided to shift focus away from prioritising terrorism.
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