Former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has stated that he feels safe in Nigeria despite the negative reports he had read before his visit.
Johnson made this remark during the Imo State Economic Summit 2025, held in Owerri, the state capital, on Thursday.
The ex-Prime Minister also hailed Governor Hope Uzodimma for his efforts to provide 24-hour electricity to the people of Imo State as part of his drive to achieve economic transformation.
Boris said, “I want you to know that when I decided to come to Owerri, I read some things, and there were people saying, ‘There may be some security problems in Nigeria.’ Have you heard that? And I said, ‘Well, I am going to go anyway.’
“And let me ask you: do you feel safe here today in this conference? Yes, we all feel safe. And I feel perfectly safe. Thank you, Governor, for what you are doing.”
He added that artificial intelligence would play a major role in helping the governor realise that vision, describing AI as the future.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, on Wednesday stated that insecurity increased in Nigeria following US President Donald Trump’s statement.
Naijaonpoint reports that Bwala made this claim in an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, adding that the country is going through a difficult period.
Bwala said, “There are two theories behind the incessant security problems in Nigeria. The first is that as an election cycle approaches, these incidents tend to occur back-to-back.
“But there is an even stronger theory being discussed lately: after Donald Trump’s initial outburst, we began to witness repeated security incidents. Some people think it may be an attempt to justify talk of a possible military intervention in Nigeria.”
Bwala’s statement followed Trump’s decision to redesignate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” accusing the government of enabling what he described as Christian genocide.
Trump also warned the Nigerian government to act swiftly or risk US military intervention to fish out those responsible for unrest in the country.
Bwala said the Nigerian government is concerned not only with international perception but also with the actual experiences of citizens, and is working to end the security crisis.
According to him, Nigeria’s demographic and geographic complexities have created areas that remain difficult to administer.
He said, “Niger State is larger than some European countries. In northern Nigeria, which is different from the south, the cities are far apart. In the south, cities are close to each other, but in the north, travelling from one city to another feels like travelling to another country.
“Large expanses of land have little or no population and no government presence. These are the areas where these elements hide and operate from.”
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