By Boniface Ihiasota
At the 33rd African Union summit held in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, it was a successful outing as Nigeria signed major bilateral agreements.
This is as the governor of Imo state, Senator Hope Uzodinma accompanied Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari to the summit.
The event which had present African leaders in attendance, was an opportunity for the newly sworn-in governor of Imo state to also meet African leaders towards projecting Imo state potential even more.
One of the agreements reached is the Visa Waiver with Ethiopia. There was also a memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation towards coordination of efforts to fight against terrorism and secure peace in the overall African continent. Other yet to be announced agreement was also reached at the summit by the Nigerian delegates.
Since his emergence as the governor of Imo State, Uzodinma has drawn the praise of all and sundry, including the international community with prosperous gains for the Eastern Heartland state.
Imo state is known for Tourism and has a huge investment potential with the Senator Hope Uzodinma promising a government of continuum and progress.
At this year’s summit the leaders discussed about ‘silencing guns’, a part of a wider agenda to have a prosperous ,peaceful and integrated continent in 50 years, also known as agenda 2063. For instance the President of South Sudan, President Salva Kiir was asked to consult his people and report back, on formation of national unity government. The President of Eric Masisi was in Addis Ababa breaking a tradition of his predecessor Ian Khama, who almost never attended any summits.
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa also became chairman of the African Union. The summit also agreed that the continent now faces violent extremism which made key policies impotant. Kenya’s Foreign Cabinet Secretary, Raychelle Omamo also called for global financial back-up for regional peacekeeping forces like the African Union Mission in Somalia(Amisom), mandated by the UN to al-shabaab.
President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire noted that while remarkable progress had been made, the continent still had a long way to hit its developmental target.
“In Five years, we have come a long way in implementing Agenda 2063. To go further, Agenda 2063 must be the responsibility of all the member states of the AU” said Ouattara who is also an Agenda 2063 champion.
The African Union has been tasked to ensure more development on the continent with more decisive approach to issues at the summits.
