UN counters Nigeria, says country properly invited to missed Boko Haram meeting

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (UNOCHA), has told PREMIUM TIMES that Nigeria was officially informed and properly invited to a high-level event in New York where the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin was discussed. This is contrary to the claims by the Nigerian presidency that the country was neither informed nor invited to the meeting where Nigeria’s neighbours and key humanitarian agencies brainstormed on how to tackle the refugee crisis caused by the conflict. The event was organised by UN Under-Secretary-General, Stephen O’Brien, but Nigeria, the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency, was absent. Reuters news agency reported last week that U.S. and European Union diplomats were disappointed that Nigeria was not represented at the meeting. The news of the absence of the Nigerian delegation at the meeting attracted condemnation back home with many blaming it on the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint ministers. They argued that a competent minister of foreign affairs would have ensured that the country was represented at the meeting where such an important issue was discussed.