The Minister of Defence, (Rtd)Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi, just back from Bamako, Mali has described the intervention and mediation visit of President Muhammadu Buhari alongside other African leaders to Mali as a vista of hope to end the crisis in the country.
Magashi, who was embedded in the presidential team to Mali, said on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport that peace is paramount to nation-building, which is a collective civic responsibility of the 20 million people in that country.
He described the search for peace in Mali by African leaders in which President Muhammadu Buhari is playing a very crucial role as a needed boost to the efforts of the former President Goodluck Jonathan ECOWAS led mediation committee.
A statement by Mohammed Abdulkadir, the Special Assistant Media to the Defence Minister quoted him as saying that the security situation in Bamako was under control.
He added that the trip to Mali by the Nigerian President had further strengthened Bilateral Cooperation among the two countries and that the visit also confirmed the leadership role of the country in Africa as well as in promoting global peace.
On his part, the Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubair Dada said that the embattled Sahel country needed the strong political will of Nigeria to end the crisis which the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari had brought to the African leaders’ mediation table.
‘The visit of President Muhammadu to the Republic of Mali is no doubt a bold step by the Nigerian leader to reiterate Nigeria’s leadership position in the affairs of ECOWAS,” he said.
