The Federal Government has disclosed that it has approached Turkey for assistance in addressing Nigeria’s persistent insecurity challenges.

President Bola Tinubu made the disclosure on Friday during a meeting with a delegation of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), led by its President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, at his residence in Lagos.

The meeting was confirmed in a statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga.

Mr. Tinubu called on CAN to work closely with his administration to achieve the nation’s collective aspirations, noting that some of the measures being implemented by his government required time to yield results.

“The mood of the nation is peaceful, although our ungoverned spaces are so large. The challenge is real, but we will surmount it. We are very religious. We are prayer warriors. We need your focus, vigilance, and cooperation,” the President said.

He added that the establishment of community and state policing would become a reality once the National Assembly completed the required legislative processes.

“Military hardware is difficult to replace. It is expensive and not available off the shelf. Our orders for four attack helicopters from the United States of America will take some time to arrive. We have approached Turkey for assistance,” he said.

The development follows recent cooperation between the Federal Government and the United States in tackling insecurity and insurgency in the country.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that the US had carried out airstrikes in North-West Nigeria, killing several terrorists.

The Nigerian government later confirmed the strikes, saying they were conducted in collaboration with the United States.

However, the action has drawn criticism from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which faulted the Federal Government for failing to announce the airstrikes before the US President did.

The PDP’s spokesman, Mr. Ini Ememobong, said the Federal Government ought to have briefed Nigerians before the information was made public by US authorities.

“The Federal Government should have been the first to report the news in order to properly sensitise the Nigerian populace, instead of waiting to confirm news already in public circulation, unless they were taken unawares like the rest of the citizens,” Mr. Ememobong said in a statement on Friday.

Meanwhile, Islamic cleric Sheikh Abubakar Gumi has called on Nigeria to immediately halt all military cooperation with the United States following the Christmas Day airstrikes on ISIS terrorists.

In a post on his Facebook page, Sheikh Gumi warned that foreign military intervention, particularly by the United States, could worsen insecurity rather than resolve it.

“Nigeria should halt all military cooperation with the USA immediately because of its imperial tendencies worldwide and seek the help of those neutral countries mentioned. Nigerians are too educated to be played with. This is going to be a 2027 campaign discourse,” he wrote.

He urged the Federal Government to instead seek military assistance from what he described as more “neutral” countries, including China, Turkey, and Pakistan.