The Turkish earthquake victims have received a $1 Million support fund from the Federal Government of Nigeria during a visit by the Musa Bello led delegation to the country. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister announced the donation.
Bello and the other delegation members were welcomed by Ambassador Mevlüt avuşolu, the Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara, the country’s capital.
The visit came soon after the horrific 7.8 – magnitude earthquake on February 6, which claimed the lives of around 50,000 people, including Christian Atsu, a former Ghanaian and Chelsea football player.
Due to the upcoming general elections in Nigeria, Bello pointed out that President Buhari was unable to personally pay a condolence visit to the nation.
The FCT Minister sent the Turkish Government and populace the President’s sincere sympathies for the terrible earthquake on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Government and people.
Together with the sympathy letter from President Buhari, the minister also gave President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a $1,000,000 Central Bank of Nigeria Promissory Note.
He said that the token was a gift from the Nigerian Government intended to help with ongoing relief operations following the devastating earthquake.
Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig are the 11 southern provinces that were directly affected by the earthquake, and President Erdoğan was unable to personally welcome the delegation due to the demands of directly supervising humanitarian efforts in those provinces.
The Minister thanked President Buhari, the Nigerian government, and the Nigerian people for providing the Republic of Turkey with moral, material, and financial support during these challenging times.
He noted that the First Lady of Nigeria, Aisha Buhari, had earlier donated 10, 000 blankets on behalf of the African First Ladies Forum to the humanitarian efforts in the country.
Çavuşoğlu told the Nigerian delegation that as of February 23, no fewer than 43,000 persons had been confirmed dead while 14 million people were affected in 11 provinces of the country. He added that the government had resolved to embark on rebuilding new cities with all associated infrastructure in all the locations of the disaster.
While wishing Nigerians a peaceful and successful general elections, the Minister reaffirmed that, in accordance with the country’s constitution, the Government of Turkey was equally committed to holding its upcoming general election, which is scheduled to take place on June 18, 2023, despite the catastrophic effects of the earthquake.
