President Bola Tinubu has declared Nigeria’s readiness to host the African Central Bank in line with the vision of the Abuja Treaty.
Tinubu made this declaration at the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, AU, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday.
He said his administration would engage the African Union Commission in collaboration with member states to ensure that the bank takes off as scheduled in 2028.
According to him, Africa’s success in addressing its challenges hinges on the firmness of its resolution, built on a foundation of deep-rooted solidarity if it is to avoid perpetuating existing problems and creating new ones.
“As a continent and as individual nations, we face strong headwinds and difficult hurdles threatening to complicate our mission to bring qualitative democratic governance and economic development to our people.
“Many of these obstacles, such as climate change and unfair patterns of global trade, are largely not of our making.
“However, some of the pitfalls, including coup-birthed autocracies and the deleterious tinkering with constitutional tenure provisions, are developmental cancers we as Africans are giving to ourselves,” he stated.
Speaking on the military takeovers in the Republics of Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, and the exit of three of these nations from ECOWAS, the President said disagreements over the unconstitutional changes of government should not mean a permanent rupture of the abiding lines of regional affinity and cooperation.
“The drive for a peaceful, strong, and united West Africa is bigger than any one person or group of people. The bonds of history, culture, commerce, geography, and brotherhood hold deep meaning for our people,” he added.
