At a time when independent African democracies are under attack from anti-democratic forces both inside and outside of the continent, President Bola Tinubu has advised U.S. Presidential Envoy and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Molly Phee, to make sure that U.S. policy is intentionally collaborative with those democracies.
Ajuri Ngelale, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, made this known in a statement on Saturday.
The President noted that American-backed development finance and multilateral institutions, which were designed to support war-torn Europe after World War II, require swift and comprehensive reform to meet the developmental requirements of younger democracies in Africa, which operate in authoritarian-crowded environments, such that the legitimate yearnings of Africans would no longer be manipulated to serve the narrow aims of self-seeking demagogues through unconstitutional takeovers of power.
“Yes, the private sector will lead the way within an enabling environment we create for them, but the U.S. The government must be innovative in its thinking and systematically create incentives for the U.S. industrial investment in Nigeria. Under my leadership, Nigeria stands ready to address their specific regulatory, tax, and environmental concerns. I am determined to create prosperity for all Nigerian families,” the President declared.
“We are deep in our attempts to peacefully settle the issue in Niger by leveraging on our diplomatic tools. I continue to hold ECOWAS back, despite its readiness for all options, in order to exhaust all other remedial mechanisms. War is not ideal for my economic reforms, nor for the region, but the defence of democracy is sacrosanct. The ECOWAS consensus is that we will not allow anyone to insincerely buy time,” the ECOWAS Chairman affirmed.
Pledging its support for the position of ECOWAS, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy expressed the high regard the U.S. Administration has for the leadership of the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Bola Tinubu, and extended an exclusive invitation from U.S. President Joe Biden to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City to advance discussions further in late September.
“We know there is more we can do to incentivize large-scale American investment in Nigeria and we are committed to working closely with you to achieve that, as part of efforts to strengthen the Nigerian economy and the regional economy. We appreciate your willingness to create an enabling environment for that. President Joe Biden is asking to meet with you on the sidelines of UNGA, and you are the only African leader he has requested to meet. It is a mark of his high regard for your leadership,” the U.S. Special Envoy said.
The President came to the conclusion that the task of refining democracy is never finished, even in developed democracies, as recently demonstrated in America, as well as other growing democracies throughout the world. He accepted the invitation to meet the U.S. President on the fringes of the UN General Assembly.
Ada Peter
