Buhari: Boko Haram, Piracy to Top Maritime Security Summit in Togo ‎

President Muhammadu Buhari ‎has accepted the invitation to attend summit on ‎maritime security and development in November in Togo.

The invitation was extended to him by the President of Togo, ‎Faure Gnassingbe, who was in the country to discuss  bi-lateral issues.‎

The summit will deal ‎with issue of piracy which is presently costing the Gulf of Guinea $7 billion annually,‎ the‎ issue of illicit trafficking in drugs, humans, migration of Africans to Europe,  as well as ‎pollution of the waters with toxic waste resulting in killing the eco system in the continent’s‎ seas.‎

‎Buhari in his remarks after the closed-door session, applauded the focus of the upcoming summit on regional security, Nigerian security and the issue of Boko‎ Haram, oil theft, illegal fishing and the dumping of toxins including oil pollution.

The President said, ‎”As for Nigeria we are grateful for the sympathy and the goodwill expressed, touching on the performance of our armed forces and law enforcement agencies, since this

administration came into being. It is is not easy trying to fight on so many fronts, the North East, the South South and then try to provide infrastructure in our country.

“Since the cooperation of the regional countries comprising Cameroun,

Chad, Niger and Benin Republic we identified our problem and achieve

positive result in terms of isolation of Boko Haram and giving a chance

to peace”.

On Bilateral cooperation between the two countries, President Buhari said both countries we exploring ways of forging closer ties especially as the Togolese President is more exposed both on regional and African Union, having been in power more than himself.

“The most important thing is that we have identified our problems. The

first thing is security, we must secure our region, otherwise sustainable development will be impossible. You have just heard him (Togolese President) say how much is lost to piracy and Nigeria cannot afford to loose that.

“So there is need for cooperation amongst the African countries. We

will continue to discuss and do our best to resolve regional issues. The most important thing is that we must pay attention to Agriculture and manufacturing so that everybody can be employed and then we will

have much less problems”.

Earlier, Gnassingbe‎ commended President Buhari and the Nigerian armed  forces for the work they are doing to combat terrorism in West Africa.

According to him, ‎”What we are doing here to fight terrorism in Nigeria is to promote security in the African continent. Security is a big issue within our sub region, we saw what happened in Mali and all the recent conflict. In our region in the last 10 or 20 years we have been dealing with security issues. We pray that God will help Nigeria overcome”.

On the purpose of his visit, ‎he said, “I am also here to inform the President that Togo is hosting summit on maritime security and development in November. That summit will deal with issues of piracy and we know that one of the problems of Nigeria is the theft of oil through the sea, the summit will also deal with illicit trafficking in the sea, like drug trafficking, human trafficking and also deal with the issues of polluting our waters. Toxic things are poured in the water killing the eco system in our

African seas.

“Another important issue is the issue of migration, because some of our porous borders, some of our African brothers and sisters travel to Europe through the high sea and many of them died in the sea. We cannot sit and do nothing about it. We have to ensure that those who want to travel out go there in a good condition. That is why we are extending invitation to President Buhari for Nigeria to be at the summit to contribute to the success of it”.

Gnassingbe‎ also speaking on Bilateral cooperation between both countries, expressed gratitude that Nigeria and Togo had ‎good in the energy sector.

He said, “I did note that the energy sector in Nigeria is undergoing reforms and after the reforms we can come together and see how we can improve on further cooperation”.

On the issue of the too many summits on the continent, the Togolese President said, “‎It is not only applicable to Africa, but the whole world, but the challenge of maritime security in Africa is so much that we cannot

allow it that way.

 For instance piracy alone costs the Gulf of Guinea $7billion a year, that is what we loose for not combating it and we also know that without cooperation you cannot combat piracy but the

first stage is to come together and talk. If all the African countries are on the same page it would be easy to tackle the security

challenges, so we have to keep holding summits, because individual countries cannot combat piracy effectively without cooperation.

“If you ‎try to fight them in Togo, they go to the next country, then you don’t have the mechanism to go into the other countries, so summits are necessary, they are not even sufficient”.