With four coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and an attempted one in Guinea, Nigeria’s President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari is on his way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while he has sent his deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to Accra, Ghana for an Extraordinary Summit of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government to deliberate this Thursday on the political situation in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea.
The Presidency says Buhari will on Thursday embark on a four-day trip to participate in the 35th Ordinary Session of Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government, where, according to his spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina, he would join other African leaders in finding solutions to political, economic and social challenges facing the continent.
According to another Presidential spokesman, Mr. Laolu Akande, the meeting in Accra, to be attended by Osinbajo, coming as part of the resolutions reached at last week’s virtual meeting chaired by Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, will review the report of the ECOWAS delegation despatched to Quagadougou to meet with the military junta who recently seized power in Burkina Faso.
The summit will be attended by regional leaders who will be considering imposing additional sanctions after the country was suspended from the regional body last week.
Last Monday, soldiers forced the removal of democratically elected President Roch March Kabore from office in a military coup. The military takeover of government in Burkina Faso follows the same occurrence in Mali and Guinea recently.
It would be recalled that the President has been delegating the Vice President to represent Nigeria at a series of ECOWAS leaders’ summits on the issues of undemocratic, military takeover of governments in the region.
The Vice President will be accompanied by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, Presidential Special Adviser on Economic Matters, Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu, himself also an Ambassador, and other top Nigerian diplomats. The VP is expected back in Abuja later today.
He said the theme of the deliberation is: “Building Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent: Strengthen Agriculture, Accelerate the Human Capital, Social and Economic Development.’’
He said Buhari would on the sideline of the AU meetings, hold bilateral meetings with some leaders, with shared interest in improving trade relations, partnering to tackle security challenges and maintaining relations with multilateral institutions for sustainable development.
Adesina said the president would be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Agriculture, Mohammed Abubakar and Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouk.
“The National Security Adviser, retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno and Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai will also join the president at the AU meetings,’’ he added.