The recent meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa consolidates Africa’s efforts at containing insurgency, with the help of Washington’s tokenism, writes Correspondent, SAM NWOKORO.
There are still disturbances from Boko Haram in the North East, even if through isolated suicide bombings, since President Muhammadu Buhari took office. This is despite claims by government officials that the sect has been confined to the Sambisa forest, where the terrorists used as base.
Only recently, before he proceeded on five days vacation, February 5, the President had kicked off the year’s foreign shuttles with his appearance at the African Union (AU) annual security council summit in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
As usual, issues of security in Africa dominated discussions and African heads of government compared notes on how they had fared in containing several security challenges, not just in the Maghreb region where Islamic fundamentalism has been choking politics and social development since the 2010 Arab Spring, but also in other parts of West Africa where security profiles has come to its worst state.
Last week, also, the President headed towards Europe to hold talks with various European diplomats and government officials on a wide range of security issues. According to a statement from the Presidency, Buhari left the country on Tuesday, February 2, for France and Britain to hold talks with leaders of both countries over further assistance on the war against insurgency. The talks were held in Strasbourg, France, after he addressed a special session of the European Parliament attended by members of the legislative and executive arm of the European Union (EU).
Outcome
The AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) meeting held a donors conference in support of the multinational joint task force against Boko Haram terrorist group. The conference, which held February 1, pledged $300 million in that direction out of which Nigeria pledged $100 million.
Also, former President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Donald Kaberuka, was appointed High Representative by the AUPSC for the AU Peace Fund.
The AU hopes that the visit of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to Burundi recently will enhance the efforts made by Africa to find a solution to the crisis in Burundi. The issue of the Ebola virus Disease also attracted the attention of the regional body, as the members reviewed status reports in the three most affected countries namely Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Formation of a government of National Accord in Libya was welcomed. On Sudan, which was discussed at the last meeting, the AU High-powered Implementation Panel (AUHIP) discussed the crisis in the recently-split North African country and condemned the recent terror attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, expressing solidarity to the government and people of the country.
At regional level, the AUPSC meeting discussed the strengthening of governance mechanism of PSC framework. It recommended that future meetings of the regional oversight mechanism (ROM) be delinked from AU summits and the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to ensure that the heads of government of signatory states dedicate their undivided attention to and actively participate in discussions relating to the implementation of the framework. Future meetings are expected to be preceded by meetings of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of signatory states to lay the groundwork for discussions and decisions by the Heads of State and Government.
Last week, the President jetted out to France, the second since assuming office eight months ago. The ongoing global conference on Supporting Syria, the world’s most horrible refugee crisis being hosted by Kuwait, Norway, Germany and UN targeted at raising some $7.73 billion and another $1.2 billion for 2016/2017 refugees programmes in that beleaguered country provided the Nigerian leader another opportunity to share experiences and burdens of implementing refugee remediation plans with world leaders. He used the occasion to discuss terrorism-related containment plans of his administration with EU heads of government, parliament and executives, including Nigeria’s traditional ally, London. Both EU and London had made various pledges of assistance to Buhari to resettle Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and fight terrorism in North East Nigeria.
To date, about 4,000 Nigerians have lost their lives to insurgency in the North East, with more than double that figure displaced in various states such as Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Kano, Bauchi, Plateau and even some parts of Abuja where Boko Haram rode roughshod.
However, there is the general perception that given the tight monetary constraints under which his N6 trillion budget is running, amid uncertainty about legislative vetting on the various appropriations by government’s departments, the President might have pre-empted that his budgetary provisions for defence and security matters might not go far enough in achieving his aim of routing Boko Haram and other security challenges in the country, both those demanding use of arms and those not needing use of force.
Besides, most of the European countries that promised the President various kinds of assistance when he won election in 2015 have yet to practically fulfil such pledges. It appears the President feels he needs those assistance now more than before.
Efforts
The President’s efforts to tackle insecurity may not have accomplished much. However, there are visible signs that he is making headlines in first of all finding out reasons his predecessor did not make required impact in the security sector. It appears the President’s allegations that corruption by top security institutions in the country compromised their tasks during the Jonathan era have substance. This has been revealed by the series of shocking revelations emanating from the $2.1 billion arms procurement scandal. The money was mindlessly shared to political jobbers and unpatriotic serving and retired security chiefs.
A particularly infuriated Nnamdi Onyeobia, an estate practitioner, fumed: “Before, I thought that this probe was a needless waste of time by Buhari. I felt nothing was going to come out of it because I knew Jonathan government was many times frustrated by Western powers from purchasing arms. But what can one make of all this mindless waste of national wealth in the phony arms deal by the Office of National Security Adviser (NSA).
“They used a whole $2.1 billion to lobby for re-election, by distributing it to some burnt out oldies and some elements who knew little or nothing about security, hoping they would guarantee security in the land. Then did they achieve that? All those who wasted that money when Boko Haram was killing Nigerians must be punished. No wonder the President insisted he wanted to start the probe from Jonathan’s era. Let us say the truth; those who did this thing have no conscience. They are simply mad people.”
It would appear that some western powers acknowledged the President’s little efforts in dealing with the rot in the security institutions. As if to complement the President’s efforts, a delegation of U.S. businessmen and top government functionaries led by Commerce Secretary early January came with portfolio investors to register their willingness to do business in Nigeria. TheNiche gathered that the group had a resounding reception in Lagos and Abuja.
The visit came few days after the Nigerian government took delivery of some armoured tanks from the U.S. government mid January.
The Nigerian army unit fighting Boko Haram had reportedly suffered many setbacks because they lacked adequate weapons to penetrate most of Boko Haram’s hideouts.
