President Bola Tinubu has described terrorism as an imported evil that must be banished from Africa.
During the opening remarks of the federal government-hosted African high-level counterterrorism summit on Monday, Tinubu made this commitment.
Jerrymusa.com reports that the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) provided support for the event.
Terrorism Causing Setback to Development
According to Tinubu, “terrorism acts as a roadblock to the development of a wealthy and equitable society for its people.”
“The farmer from his field, the children from their schools, the women from the marketplace, and the families from their very homes are the targets of this violent threat,” he declared. It wants businesses to close and city dwellers to cower.
“Instead of democracy and a civilised society, it yearns for tyranny and repression. Its intention is to create such chaos that we start to question our democratic values, leaving governments and society in such a state of confusion and chaos that we start to fight among ourselves instead of fighting the very thing that seeks our destruction,” he added.
In addition to stating that “while terrorism troubles us greatly at the moment, we do well to remember that terrorism is not of Africa,” Tinubu claimed that terrorism has placed a heavy weight on the continent.
“We have to let this foreign evil know that it will not bend or break us. We’re going to eliminate it, not make us bow,” he said.
In order to combat instability on the continent, the president urged attendees to combine resolute national efforts with well-considered regional and international partnerships.
Amina Mohammed, the deputy UN secretary-general, Leonardo Santos Simão, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Vladimir Voronkov, the UNOCT undersecretary-general, and other senior UN representatives were present at the conference.
Moussa Mahmat, the chairperson of the African Union (AU) commission; Hanana Hanana, the minister of national defence of Mauritius; President Patrice Talon of the Republic of Benin; and Presidents Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Faure Gnassingbe of Togo were among the African leaders present at the meeting.