PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has arrived in the country from Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, where he attended the third forum of the African Conference for Peace.
The helicopter conveying the President from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport arrived at Aso Rock Villa a few minutes before 4 pm.
His first foreign trip in 2023, the event saw Buhari honoured by the Abu Dhabi Peace Forum with the ‘Award for Strengthening Peace in Africa’.
The President, in his address at the conference, stated that efforts must be intensified towards curtailing and preventing the circulation of small arms and light weapons, and curbing the influx of foreign fighters into the African continent.
Again, he asked that the next summit of the African Union take a holistic review of the challenges that continue to fester in Libya.
This, Buhari said, should be done with the hope of finding a pragmatic African approach to resolving the over-a-decade-old instability in the country that has become a safe haven for all kinds of weapons and foreign fighters.
He bemoaned that Nigeria’s security and that of the Lake Chad Basin remain unstable, owing to lingering conflicts in Libya, the Central African Republic and Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
The President also met with the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussain on the sidelines.
He further stated that a number of people disguise under the cover of religion to advance their economic and political agenda, as he advised that continuous education is urgently required to enlighten the larger populace.