Former president, Olusegun
Obasanjo and Chairman, Advisory Board of the First Intra-African Trade Fair
holding in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday lamented Nigeria’s failure to sign the
African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), despite its leadership role in
the continent.
Obasanjo stated this while
speaking at the closing sessions of the first Intra Africa Trade Fair and
Exhibitions titled “Conversation with former Nigerian president”.
He made it clear that the rest of
Africa countries was ready to proceed with the implementation of the pact
without Nigeria.
On March 21, 2018, 44 of the 55
African Union (AU) member states gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, to sign the AfCFTA
with a view to creating a single market in the continent.
Once the agreement is ratified by
all signatories, the trade bloc to be created would encompass 1.2 billion
people and over $2trillion in combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“I just sincerely hope and pray
that Nigeria will be at the table before the implementation of the scheme
begins. But the truth is that whether Nigeria is there or not, Africa has
started to move forward and it cannot stop the rest of continent that have
already signed the agreement.
“We started it from 1963. From
there we had the Lagos Plan of Action, then NEPAD, the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) and several others. But what has gone wrong today
that Nigeria is taking the back stage in Africa’s economic integration initiative?”
he said.
According to him, the AfCTA is
the economic salvation that Africa needsm to redeem the wrong perceptions of it
left by colonialism.
“I don’t care what people say
about me but I believe this is the time that we need to rise together and prove
to world leaders that go with the perception that Africans live in huts and
that we are shit holes, that we are human beings and the only way we can do
this is by improving the standard of living of Africans,” Obasanjo added.
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