The French President spoke at a joint news
conference at the Elsee Palace, with visiting
President Muhammadu Buhari who is on a
three-day trip to Paris. The French President also said the fight against
Boko Haram and Islamic State jihadists is the
same battle. He warned that Boko Haram had expanded
after declaring its loyalty to IS. He said the jihadists alliance, announced in
March, had given Boko Haram a source of
material resources. We know Boko Haram is linked to Daesh and
so receives help, support from this group,
Hollande said, using the Arabic acronym for the
IS group. To fight Boko Haram is to fight Daesh, and we
can no longer single out terrorism according to
regions. It is the same terrorism, inspired by the
same ideology of death, the French leader
added. The French President said his government was
concerned about the increasing spate of
insecurity in Nigeria and West Africa and is ready
to render support in tackling extremism. He said he discussed with President Buhari new
strategies of partnership that would enable
Nigeria and its neighboring countries 
Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic 
through the joint action of the MJTF to fight the
insurgency and restore the peace. As an intervention approach to assist in the
fight, he recalled that France last year hosted a
Regional Summit on Security in Paris which
brought together the neighboring countries to
chart the way forward. He said: We provide all of the support to the
countries in the region which are affected by
this cult and in Nigeria; we want to provide
support and solidarity. Thanking President Buhari for his recent actions
towards defeating terror, he said France had
concluded arrangements to invest 130 million
eoros in the development of infrastructure in
Nigeria for rebuilding of roads, provision of
electricity and water supply. Despite the fall in the price of crude oil in the
international market which has affected
Nigerian expected revenue, he noted that the
countrys economy still remained strong. The Nigerian economy remains strong so,
France wants to be doing business in the
country. He said President Buhari thanked the French
government for its interest in assisting Nigeria
and expressed readiness of his administration
to partner with France. With the commitment from France, he said
Nigerias next shopping list regarding support
will move to other members of the G7. We have to depend on France and the other G7
countries for support to fight piracy. Our next shopping list is going to G7 in terms
of intelligence and training. Another problem is
the problem in the Gulf of Guinea, from Senegal
to Angola, that area is endowed with resources
like petroleum and other minerals but
surrounded by piracy and theft. We are going to depend on France and the G7
countries to flush these criminals out of the
region. On Nigerias problems, more than 67 per cent
of our youths and most of them under their
youthful age are unemployed. We are finding
best way in Agriculture and mining to address
this before sophisticated infrastructure and
security, are provided. We want to make sure we feed ourselves and
provide security before other things are also
tackled, he added Nigeria and France, last year, signed bilateral
agreements which enables the French
government to provide $1.170 Million soft loan
through the French development agency AFD
for the construction of high voltage power lines
and substations that will connect Abuja with electrical distribution network. The President will today continue his visit and
hold talks with the business community in
 France.