The Federal Government has described the criticisms of its continued relationship with France as insulting, short-sighted, myopic and against Nigeria’s national interest.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggah, disclosed during an interview on Arise TV, on Wednesday, amid breakage of relations with France by Niger Republic, Burkina Faso and Mali over rising insecurity in the countries despite their security presence.

However, Mr Tuggah played down the criticisms against the Nigerian government, insisting that its relationship with world super powers, including France, was imperative to address the insecurity in Nigeria especially from Libya.

Mr Tuggah said, “To solve Libya, we need a relationship with France, USA, Russia, all of these major powers. That’s how we can solve it. You can’t say Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have decided, after all these years, they no longer want to have anything to do with France, therefore Nigeria must be compelled. Meanwhile, Nigeria is the senior partner in the relationship to begin with. We can’t tackle insecurity in our region simply by a partnership or by being friends with the Sahel countries. Even if you do that, you still have Libya to contend with. I just described the weaponry that’s being churned out of Libya, training, fighters, the terrorists, the criminal gangs and so on. Because they have decided they don’t want to have a relationship with France, therefore they must dictate to us, and we must comply? We should no longer have any relationship with France? It’s short-sighted, myopic and not in Nigeria’s national interest.’’

Mr Tuggah noted that Nigeria’s relationship with France had been for long, adding that it didn’t mean that other countries or other people could dictate who Nigeria must have a relationship with. He reiterated that the Bola Tinubu administrations swore to protect the constitution.