President Bola Tinubu has said that Nigeria is ready to host the African Central Bank in line with the vision of the Abuja Treaty.
Addressing leaders at the 37th Ordinary Session of the
Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, President Tinubu said his administration will
engage the African Union Commission in collaboration with member states to
ensure that the bank takes off as scheduled in 2028.
The President affirmed that Africa’s success in conclusively
addressing its challenges hinges on the firmness of its resolution, built on a
foundation of deep-rooted solidarity, if it is to avoid perpetuating existing
problems and creating new ones.
The President in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, was quoted as saying, “As a continent and as individual nations, we face strong headwinds and difficult hurdles threatening to complicate our mission to bring qualitative democratic governance and economic development to our people. Many of these obstacles, such as climate change and unfair patterns of global trade, are largely not of our making.
“However, some of the pitfalls, including coup-birthed
autocracies and the deleterious tinkering with constitutional tenure
provisions, are developmental cancers we as Africans are giving to ourselves,”
he stated.
Speaking on the military takeovers in the Republics of
Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, and the exit of three of these nations
from ECOWAS, the President said disagreements over the unconstitutional changes
of government should not mean a permanent rupture of the abiding lines of
regional affinity and cooperation.
“The drive for a peaceful, strong, and united West Africa is
bigger than any one person or group of people. The bonds of history, culture,
commerce, geography, and brotherhood hold deep meaning for our people. Thus,
out of the dust and fog of misunderstanding and acrimony, we must seize the
chance to create a new people-centric era of trust and accord.
“To all who care to listen, I declare that if you come to
the table to discuss important matters in good faith, you will find Nigeria and
ECOWAS already sitting there waiting to greet you as the brother that you are,”
President Tinubu said.
On education, which is the theme of this year’s summit, the
President said education is the core ingredient in the process of evolving
creative solutions to the unique challenges long confronting the continent.
“In helping to achieve the Agenda 2063 objective of a
peaceful, united and prosperous Africa, I consider African education, not only
in the narrow context of the benign use of science and technology to improve
the material standards of our people, but also in the nuanced appreciation of
the fact that Africa must also become better educated in the humane art of
democratic practice, diplomacy, and conflict resolution without violence.
“This year’s theme encourages us to remodel our educational
systems to fit these goals. In Nigeria, my administration is devoting ample
resources to education at all levels. From redesigning our school feeding
programmes and academic curricula to making ourselves an Information and
Communication Technology hub, through which we shall bring more youths into the
classroom and furnish them with the tools required to flourish in the global
economy of the 21st century,” he said.
The President used the occasion to extend invitation to the
Africa Counter-Terrorism Summit scheduled to take place in April 2024, in
Abuja, stating that the summit aims to expand discussions beyond military and
law enforcement remedies to comprehensively tackle the root causes of violent
extremism, such as poverty, inadequate political access, and the propagation of
hateful ideologies.
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