By Dele Ogbodo
President Muhammadu Buhari will on Sunday depart Abuja for Lome, Republic of Togo, to participate in the dialogue
on finding lasting solution to security challenges within ECOWAS and ECCAS sub regions.
Mr. Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, said in a statement that the president will on Monday, attend the joint summit which will deliberate on common security threats to countries in West Africa and members of the Economic Community of Central African States with a view to forging concerted strategies in tackling the menace of terrorism, trans-border crimes and other forms of violent extremism.
On arrival on Sunday, he will have an interactive session at the Nigerian embassy with the Nigerian community based in Togo, the statement added.
The statement added: “It would be recalled that President Buhari had expressed support for the proposed ECOWAS/ECCAS Summit when he received the current Chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo recently in Katsina.”
According to him, “terrorism now transcends international boundaries, and no country can combat the scourge alone.”
While in Lome, the Nigerian delegation will also participate in a meeting on a single currency for ECOWAS with the deadline of 2020. Being the largest economy not only in West Africa but also on the continent, Nigeria’s leadership role in this sub-regional aspiration cannot be over-emphasised.
On Tuesday, President Buhari will join other leaders of the sub-region for the 53rd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government.
This session according to Shehu, will be dominated by the political and security situations in Guinea Bissau, Mali and Togo; institutional reforms of the ECOWAS Commission to enhance its effectiveness; illegal migration of Africans to Europe; and the worrisome violent clashes between herders and farmers, among other issues.
At the end of the session, a new Chair of the ECOWAS Authority is expected to take over from the incumbent and host.
President Buhari will be accompanied by Governors Ben Ayade and Abubakar Bello of Cross River and Niger States respectively. Others are Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali; Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazau; and the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno; the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin; the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar; and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, are also in the President’s delegation.
Meanwhile, Buhari has expressed his sympathy with the people of Kebbi State on the flood disasters that have destroyed farmlands and engendered considerable losses of crops and homes.
Reacting to the latest outbreak of the natural disaster that has affected a number of states in this year’s rainy season, President Buhari said he was “highly touched by the sheer scale of the losses suffered by our hard working farmers in Kebbi State.”
According to Buhari, “this sad news couldn’t have come at a worse time for this administration because of the role of Kebbi State farmers in supporting the government’s initiative to promote local rice production as part of efforts to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on importation of the commodity. This flood disaster represents a setback for the efforts to boost local rice production in the country, for which Kebbi State is playing a leading role.”
Apart from creating job opportunities and decent incomes for our farmers, President Buhari noted that agriculture plays a key role in the economy of any country.
“When our farmers are hit by these kinds of large scale losses on account of natural disasters, the government should be genuinely concerned, especially as this unfortunate event occurred at a critical time when my administration is pursuing a policy to restore the primacy of agriculture in our national life”, the President added.
President Buhari urged the affected farmers not to despair, assuring them that they will not be forgotten by the federal government. He commended the state government led by Senator Abubakar Bagudu for the swift measures put into action to alleviate the hardship of the victims and equally directed emergency federal aid in support.