President Muhammadu Buhari has said the failureof the MTN Nigeria Ltd to disconnect millions of unregistered subscribers had contributed to the killing of thousands of Nigerians by Boko Haram terrorists.He said it was for that reason that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) fined the telecom operator $5.2 billion (N1. 4 trillion). The fine has been reduced to N780 billion.President Buhari said it was unfortunate that the tardiness of the MTN to comply with the directive had enabled the terrorists to use the network.Buhari was speaking at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday during a joint press conference with the visiting South African President Jacob Zuma.Responding to a question by a South African journalist, Buhari said the basic concern of the federal government was not the fine, but the security implication of the MTN’s failure to adhere to the NCC’s directive.He said: “The concern of the federal government was basically on the security, and not the fine imposed on MTN. You know how the unregisteredGSMs are being used by terrorists. And between 2009 and today, at least 10,000Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram.“That was why the NCC asked MTN, Glo and the rest of them to register GSM subscribers.“Unfortunately, MTN was very, very slow and contributed to the casualties. And the NCC looked at its regulations and imposed the fine.”He added that a court case instituted by the MTN had delayed talks on its demand for a further reduction in the fine.Earlier, Zuma said he and Buhari discussed peace and security issues on the continent and expressed concern over the challenges posed by terrorism and extremist groups to Nigeria and other African nations.“We condemned in the strongest possible terms all forms of terrorism and extremism. During our discussions, we reiterated the need for joint regional and continental efforts towards countering these negative elements. Considering our commitment to finding African solutions to African problems, we’ve agreed to work together to deal with these challenges,” he said.Zuma disclosed that he and Buhari signed over 30bilateral agreements and memorandum of understanding covering a wide range of cooperation areas including trade and industry, transport, energy, defence and security as well as immigration. “We’ve also directed our ministers to identify joint projects in the key high impact strategic development areas, which will have socio-economic benefits such as employment creation to our peoples”, he added.Zuma said he and Buhari had noted with satisfaction the ever growing cooperation in manysectors including trade and investment, defence and security, immigration matters, energy and mineral resources.He said Nigeria and South Africa had decided to elevate the Bi-National Commission to the level of heads of state so that he and Buhari “will be able to lead as well as monitor progress in various areas of cooperation”.Describing Nigeria as South Africa’s key trading partner on the continent, Zuma said South Africancompanies in Nigerian had risen from four in 1999to over 120 now and doing businesses mainly in telecommunications, banking, retail, property, entertainment and hospitality. He promised to reduce the process of obtaining South African visa by Nigerians to boost economic activities and tourism. According to him, an average of 4,000 Nigerians travelled to South Africa on a monthly basis in 2015.“We also encourage South Africans to tour Nigeriaso that we can improve understanding and the appreciation of one another’s culture and way of life.“It is important for us to structure our economic cooperation. In this regard, the South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum has been organised comprising of high level business delegations from both countries. We urge our private sector toinvest in the respective countries and help create job opportunities and improve the quality of life. “From our side as government, we have committed ourselves to creating an enabling environment and to ease the manner of doing business in our respective countries. Responding to a question on last year’s xenophobic attacks onNigerians in South Africa, Zuma blamed the colonialists for making Africans believe they were different.He stated: “On Xenophobia, it’s unfortunate because all Africans are the same, but colonialists,through borders, made them think that they’re different; but we’re the same Africans and that hasbeen our view in addressing the issue of xenophobia. We want our people all over Africa to realise that we’re the same and have the same interests”.On the interception of funds for arms purchase from Nigeria last year, Zuma said the matter was being investigated.“The two governments are working on those matters, the relevant structures are working on it; but there are some that the necessary departments are doing the investigations. We will appreciate if we succeed in recovering all other things in South Africa so that they (the funds -$9.3m) will be returned,” he said.
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