Osinbajo Advocates Harmonised Efforts In Tackling Africa’s Security Challenges

Channels Tv

Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, says  the harmonisation of efforts between regional communities and the African Union Peace and Security Council will help Africa tackle its security challenges.

Professor Osinbajo made the statement on Monday while addressing representatives of regional economic communities at the African Union Security Council meeting held in Abuja.

He said that re-establishing peace, security and stability in the African continent was achievable if regional attention would focus on early warning and the use of effective conflict resolution mechanism.

According to him, Africa should first harmonise efforts between regional communities and the African Union Peace and Security Council before seeking help from the outside world.

Professor Osinbajo said Africa was in a season of conflicts, with recurring crisis and relapses that needed to be checked through stronger and closer regional collaboration.

The Vice President of Nigeria stressed that key areas required collective attention and decisive action for peace to gradually return to the continent.

Channels Television’s correspondent, Omelogo Nnadi, said the meeting considering how to establish peace and stability in the African continent was aimed at mapping out ways to enhance effective cooperation between the African Union Peace and Security Council and regional economic communities in the promotion of peace, security and stability in Africa.

The meeting came at a time of recurring conflicts across Africa.

At the meeting decision makers in security looked at practical measures that would ensure that African leaders pulled resources and efforts together to solve their common problem.

While Africa has been referred to by many as a continent of crises, key players at the meeting – the Chairman of the AU Peace and Security Council meeting, Professor Ibrahim Gambari and the Permanent representative of Nigeria to the AU, Ambassador Usman Baraya – disagreed, stressing that Africa must now address its problems on a regional level first before soliciting or accepting help from outside the continent.

In West Africa, Nigeria and other neighbouring countries in the Lake Chad Basin have polled security forces together to tackle the Boko Haram terrorists group  that had launched attacks on communities in Cameroon, Chad Niger and Nigeria.

Besides this collaboration with the African Union emphasised at the meeting, there are also efforts at the sub regional level supervised by ECOWAS commission to ensure security of lives and property in the region.

There is also an African standby force set aside for humanitarian intervention but these cannot yield the expected result without strong coordination and cooperation among all nations in Africa who share common problems and challenges.