The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, has expressed full backing for on-going efforts by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration to combat insurgency in the nation.

Speaking through former chairman of the Economic Community for West African States, ECOWAS, and special representative of UN Secretary General for Nigeria and West Africa, Ibn Chambers, who interacted with journalists after a meeting with President Jonathan at the Presidential Villa Tuesday, Moon also endorsed the use of the Lake Chad Basin as the operational base for the multinational task force assembled to counter Boko Haram activities in the region.

The UN boss gave a commitment that Nigeria could count on the international body for support through its peacekeeping department. According to Moon, this would ensure a truly joint operational force with a clear command and control, while fostering unity of purpose among the multinational troops involved in the fight against insurgency.

“In this you can count on the strong support of the United Nations. The Secretary General wishes to assure that in the area of humanitarian support with the displaced persons in Nigeria, we will continue to work with Nigerian authorities,” he said.

Chambers stated that the Secretary General had separate telephone conversations with both President Jonathan and the All Progressive Congress, APC, candidate, Muhammadu Buhari when it was clear that the elections may be postponed after all.

The special envoy acknowledged that the reasons proffered for postponing the elections were valid and expressed satisfaction that the decision was peaceably accepted by all stakeholders.

“We have seen that the postponement has been accepted by all the political parties and stakeholders. The reasons given are known now. It is evident that in some areas, PVC collection has been relatively very low” he added.

According to the envoy, the postponement will give many Nigerians an opportunity to collect their PVCs and be able to observe their civic duty.