Buhari demands weighty EU sanctions against coup plotters in Africa

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on European leaders as partners in promoting democracy and good governance to lend their weight behind measures put in place by the African Union to stem the tide of unconstitutional leadership changes, rearing its head again on the continent.

The call is contained in his contribution to the roundtable discussion on Peace, Security and Governance at the ongoing 6th EU-AU Summit on Thursday in Brussels, Belgium.

Similarly, he stressed the need to nip the root causes of extremism, conflicts and tensions in Africa at inception.

A statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), quoted him as saying: “Africa has continued to witness different waves of violent extremism, community-based conflicts and inter-ethnic tensions, notably in rural areas. For many decades, our continent has been deprived of political stability and socio-economic development due to terrorism and violent extremism.

“More worrisome is the current state of democracy on the continent, which has become a great source of concern to many of us, with increasing cases of unconstitutional change of governments across the continent, particularly in West Africa. This is in addition to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The African Union has often responded to these challenges through its different structures, such as the African Peace and Security Architecture and the African Governance Architecture.

“Through enhanced collaboration with our development partners, especially the European Union, we can identify areas of cooperation for quick and substantive results.

“As leaders and policymakers, it is important for our partnership to place priority on tackling the root causes of conflicts in Africa, as well as taking measures in safeguarding peace and security if we are to achieve the African Union Agenda 2063.

“We also call for stronger support from the European Union in the condemnation and imposition of weighty sanctions on countries that engage in unconstitutional change of governments, as well as manipulation of constitutions in favour of extension of term limits.”

The Nigerian leader added that it was imperative to ensure that election processes in Africa have outcomes that truly reflect the wishes of the electorate, as to go contrary to these is courting instability.

He further said that “we have a responsibility to reduce conflicts that stem from lack of good governance, unaccountability, corruption and social exclusion.

“Free, fair, credible and transparent elections remain crucial elements in ensuring peace and security and promoting constitutional order, democracy and inclusive governance on the continent.

“It is therefore imperative for our partnership to also focus on strengthening election processes in Africa and prevent interference to influence the process and outcomes of elections.”

President Buhari also called for the concretization and transformation of promises of cooperation made by the European leaders to actions, stating: “I wish to underscore the need to convert our pledges on political cooperation in the area of peace, security and conflict prevention into concrete initiatives such as joint field missions, shared understanding and analysis on crisis situations, as well as joint early action and swift implementation of agreed positions.

“The movement and operation of terrorists and violent extremist groups along the Sahel could better be addressed through an improved Continental Early Warning Mechanism. Consequently, we believe there is a clear need to strengthen our cooperation on security with the European Union, particularly through improved intelligence sharing and acquisition of military equipment and hardware.

“We invite the EU to upscale its support for the G5 Sahel and the Multinational Joint Taskforce in the Lake Chad Region as we strive to further degrade the Boko-Haram insurgents and their Islamic State in the West Africa Province counterparts. Africa also looks up to Europe for enhanced support in the area of combating Illicit financial flows and terrorism funding that aid the activities of terrorists and violent extremist groups.”

He called for all hands to be on deck to ensure that Africa’s Blue Economy Agenda for development is realized.

According to him, “I must emphasize the importance of expanding regional and international cooperation on ocean governance, on the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing as well as on maritime security, including piracy, illicit trafficking and other maritime crimes and threats as reflected in the 2050 Africa Integrated Maritime Strategy.”

The Presidents and his counterparts from Algeria and South Africa as well as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia under the auspices of the “G4” have also resolved to strengthen the platform for the resolution of the various issues confronting the African continent.

This came in Brussels ahead of the 6th EU-AU Summit with the four African leaders using the opportunity to discuss crisis areas on the continent with a view to coming up with practical and effective solutions.

The leaders stressed the need to reinvigorate the G4 within the African Union (AU) as a platform for bringing African countries closer, coordinating actions and reactions for the whole continent in a more proactive manner and looking at how decisions in the AU could be better implemented.

They also agreed to convene a formal summit to chart a road map for Africa in the coming months.

A separate statement by Shehu explained that the G4 Platform, an initiative of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, was set up towards discussing and proffering solutions as well as aggregating positions to ensure that the African Union carries its work forward successfully, efficiently and quickly too.

It informed that Buhari also held a bilateral meeting with the President of Czech Republic, Milos Zeman who renewed his country’s trust in Buhari and Nigeria as the most important country in ECOWAS as well as one of Africa’s greatest.

He expressed the readiness of his country to revitalise the Joint Commission mechanism between the two countries in order to enhance a qualitative relationship, diplomatically and people to people.

The Czech leader specifically expressed interest and desire for more robust collaboration and partnership in military cooperation and especially in equipment to assist Nigeria to enhance her security capabilities.

President Zeman, who informed that the Czech Republic would assume the Presidency of the European Union (EU) in July, expressed similar readiness to partner with Nigeria in the fields of Agriculture and Health and has decided to convene a pre-assumption of EU Presidency consultative meeting, to help set early agenda for her Presidency.

He invited Nigeria’s Minister of Health to attend the consultative meeting of highly respected countries in Prague in May 2022 and also extended an invitation to President Buhari to visit his country in the course of 2022.

While President Buhari accepted in principle the two invitations, assuring that the proposals would be considered through appropriate Diplomatic channels, he directed the Minister of Health of Nigeria to attend the meeting in May.

On the revitalisation of the relationship between the two countries and deepening partnerships in military cooperation procurement of equipment as well as in Agriculture, President Buhari assured his guest he would work with the proposals.

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