Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan said external forces are arming the Islamist sect, Boko Haram fighters, in its insurgency in the north. He made the statement yesterday in Abuja that ordinarily the sect members whether as a group or as individuals lack the wherewithal to buy the sophisticated weapons they are using in terrorising people especially in Adamawa,Borno and Yobe States.
Presidenr said: “When you look at the characters that carry the weapons in the turbulent areas including the northern part of my country, you see a young person carrying an AK-47 rifle that is approximately more than $1,000 but the total sum of everything the person wears on his body, from the canvass to whatever he puts on, is not up to $50,” President Jonathan said at the Seventh Joint Annual Meeting of the Economic Community of Africa (ECA), Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and African Union (AU) Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance.
“Where is the money coming from that they are using to buy these expensive guns and very poor wretched boys carry these weapons to kill, destabilise the society, increase our problems in terms of economic development? “Are there some external forces that don’t want Africa to grow that are providing these weapons?”
President Jonathan urged African governments to ”deepen our regional integration efforts and also to work towards a continental free trade area” and implored the continent’s leaders to find answers to “why is it that our economic growth is not being translated into job creation in the continent.”
He could not understand why Africa is yet to shift away from its economy based on primary commodities.
“Is it because of lack of energy? Is it because of corruption in government and in the private sector? Is it the key infrastructural issues? Is it because our governments are very unstable? Is it because of security issues?”
Jonathan asked delegates at the conference with the theme ‘Industrialisation for Inclusive and Transformative Development Agenda’ to all “work together as a team, exchanging ideas, sharing knowledge and learning from each other’s experience.”
He also charged them “to work together for regional infrastructural projects to implement our plans for industrialisation and trade integration.”
Also speaking at the conference, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, said the time has come for African countries to actualise the Common African Position (CAP) for the industrialisation and development of the continent. She said the document was adopted at the 26th AU Head of Government meeting at Addis Ababa and has received wide range of consultations and is all inclusive.
The Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Jan Eliasson, said there could be no peace without development, no development without peace, and no peace or development without human rights and the rule of law.
The nexus between peace and development, he said, “is essential, and effective institutions and rule of law are paramount for both peace and development.”
The ambitious commitment to establish a continental free trade area by 2017, he noted, would give momentum to Africa’s industrial development, but he cautioned that mobilization of domestic resources will be important.
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