Nigeria tries to strengthen African unity, cooperation

Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 140 million people, is striving to strengthen African unity, cooperation and development through the African Union, the Nigerian Ambassador to Indonesia said in Jakarta.

Oil-rich Nigeria played a key role in establishing the first- ever African Union regional organization in place of the impotent Organization of African Unity in 2002. Since then it has been extending a great amount of assistance to strengthen the organization.

"We are not just talking. Nigeria has so far spent US$10 billion in nine years in Liberia alone. So far, we have lost 5,000 Nigerian soldiers in peacekeeping operations in many African countries. We are always in the front line to solve African problems," Ambassador Moh. Buba Ahmed, whose country is the present chair of the African Union, told The Jakarta Post in connection with Africa Day celebrations.

He said Nigerian troops were present in Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Congo and Kosovo on peacekeeping missions.

Africa Day was celebrated on May 25 throughout the world. This year's Africa Day theme was "An Efficient and Effective African Union of new Africa."

In 1963, all the African countries decided while meeting in Addis Ababa to observe May 25 as Africa Day.

"Africa Day is belonging to all Africans, not belonging to one particular country. It's every African country's responsibility to promote Africa Day," Buba said.

Africa, according to Buba, is changing very fast in all aspects. There is an increasing awareness of human rights and democracy. Gone are the days of military coups. Now, no government is accepted or recognized in Africa if it is not elected via the ballot box.

"See what happened in the Central African (Republic) and Togo. We clearly told them military governments are not acceptable," Buba said.

The process of democratization is gaining momentum, with several African countries achieving successful transfer of power through open electoral processes.

Thanks to the pressure from the AU, both the Central African Republic and Togo have recently held elections and elected new governments.

Being a major contributor to peacekeeping missions in Africa, Nigeria has been working as a mediator to strengthen AU's institutions for conflict prevention, resolution and management.

Despite these achievements, Buba added, Africa had been facing problems like poverty, AIDS, indebtedness, unemployment, conflicts and other serious issues.

"Our President Olusegun Obasanjo as the chairman of the AU has been trying hard to convince developed nations as well as international monetary organizations to help African countries to remove the debt burden of poor countries so that they can concentrate on development programs," Buba said.

The modernization of Asian economies -- the rapid growth in India, China, South Korea and some Southeast Asian countries, in particular -- has drawn the attention of African countries.

"We want to learn from Asia's experience, especially in terms of economic development. We want a meaningful economic partnership between Asia and Africa. It was very clearly reflected in the recently held Asian-African Summit in Jakarta," Buba explained.

He appreciated Indonesia's initiative along with South Africa to host the Asian-African Summit, which adopted the New Asian- African Strategic Partnership declaration.

"I congratulate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian government and its people for successfully hosting the Asian-African Summit," he said.