FG, ECOWAS committed to ending insurgency, terrorism – Ekweremadu

The Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has reassured the international community of the commitment of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria and the ECOWAS to stamp out terrorism and insurgency from Nigeria and her neighbouring states.

Senator Ekweremadu gave the assurance on Wednesday at the two-day High Level Seminar on “Peace, Security, and Sustainable Development” being organised by the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) at the Belgium National Parliament in Brussels.

Fielding questions as a panelist on the sub-theme “The Consequences of Violent Extremism and Terrorism”, he said the President Buhari Administration had built on the efforts of the previous government and shown “enormous will and commitment towards ending the twin evils of insurgency and terrorism”.

He further assured: “The President has also given our armed forces till around December to rid the country of these merchants of death and they are making tremendous progress to deliver on this mandate. Once this is done, we are looking forward to a marshal plan to rebuild the North East region and other affected parts of the country.  These are our key priorities both at the ECOWAS and national levels”

Also addressing the opening session of the Seminar earlier in the chambers of the Belgian Senate, the Speaker who also doubles as the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, however called for a united global action against violent extremism and terrorism.

He said: “Without prejudice to individual country efforts towards taming the menace of insecurity and promotion of peace and development within its borders, the truth is that the world needs a more collaborative approach if we must succeed.  The insecurity of a part affects the security of the whole. In a highly globalized world especially, a rich or better secure neighbour cannot have a peaceful sleep when her poor and less secure neighbours are kept awake by poverty, terrorism, and violent extremism”.

“Nothing demonstrates this today more than Europe where the war, insurgency, terrorism, and abject poverty in parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, have triggered enormous immigrant crisis in an otherwise more secure, peaceful, and comfortable continent”.

He charged parliaments around the world to get to the root causes of violent extremism and terrorism with a view to ending the evils.

He added: “To what extent do poverty, radicalization, external meddlesomeness, internal political highhandedness, among others, give rise to or fuel global insurgency, terrorism, and political instability?

“How can parliamentary diplomacy, legislations, oversight functions, appropriation, and other legislative instruments be deployed in waging the war against global insecurity and foster development? These are the nagging questions, which I believe we need to address both at our national, regional, and global parliamentary levels”.

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