French President, Emmanuel Macron says although he loves and sees Nigeria as a pleasant country, his government can do little or nothing to help in solving the plethora of security problems currently facing the country.

Macron met with his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja before proceeding to Lagos to celebrate African culture at the famous ‘Fela Shrine’ in what is seen as his latest attempt to forge closer ties with English-speaking African nations.

“I’m very happy to be here with you tonight. I like Nigeria a lot. It’s an appealing country. I’ve got a lot of memories… that haven’t left me,” said Macron, addressing the cheering and whistling crowd at the ‘shrine’ in English.

The 40-year-old former investment banker spent six months as an intern at the French embassy in the early 2000s. Since coming to power, he has made it a point of duty of not only boosting ties with France’s former colonies but also improving trade relations with Anglophone countries.

Earlier during his visit to President Buhari at the State House, Macron urged the Nigerian president and other African leaders to provide the enabling economic and political environments for the younger generation to excel.

While stressing that France would intervene in some of the challenges facing African countries especially in the war against terrorism, the French president said it was not the responsibility of his country to solve African problems.

According to Macron, it was very expedient that African countries and their governments organized themselves in the fight against terrorism and get rid of rampaging Islamic jihadists on the continent.

“First of all, I think the main plan is an African plan and France is not the one to solve or fix African situations. So, what we want to do is that we will intervene and make our presence in Africa and Sahel to fight against terrorism especially in Mali and in the region. And we will stay as long as it is requested by our friends, especially Mali,” Macron said.

He added: “We discussed yesterday (Monday) about this issue. But what is important to me is how the different African governments organize themselves to fight against terrorism and get rid of these people and especially Jihadism.

“That’s is why I do accompany and promote the G5/Sahel Initiatives, and I think as far as we are organized, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon are very important against Boko Haram.”