Motivate Other African Countries on Governance, AU Delegation Urges Nigeria

By Michael Olugbode and Kasim Sumaina

A delegation from the Africa Union (AU) has urged Nigeria to live up to the Big Brother tag on the continent by motivating other African countries on governance.

The AU delegates on Country Review Mission (CRM), on the second Peer Review process in Abuja on Monday, said Nigeria needs to serve as motivator to other African countries in governance and other good virtues.

The Lead Panelist on AU CRM, Prof. Janneh Abdoulie, made the call in Abuja, at a town hall meeting organised by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to engage state/non-actors on the review process.

According to him, the review mission will address the four thematic areas of democracy/political governance, economic, social development and corporate governance.

Abdoulie noted that it is an important process for the APRM that will make Nigeria a mirror in Africa, being the first country to carry out the second review process after a four-year period given by the AU before another review.

He said they chose to be in Nigeria in order to further assess the reports approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that the reports would serve as a reference point for others.

In her contribution, Prof. Christiana Adeyeye, Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), applauded Nigeria’s APRM Secretariat for its review process, which she said would assist in bringing more development to the country.

While answering questions on NAFDAC contributions, Adeyeye said the agency was looking at encouraging the local contents for the creation of jobs in Nigeria, and to also divert the country from overdependence on foreign goods.

She said: “Whether medicine or drugs, clothing, we are overdependent on foreign goods, and COVID-19 pandemic has opened the eyes of everybody, especially in the health sector,” she said.

Also, Mr Boboye Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), said the corps was exploiting new mechanism to boost its services to reduce traffic crisis and fatality on Nigeria roads.

Represented by Mr Victor Nwokolo, Deputy Corps Marshal, Policy Research/Solution, Oyeyemi said the corps’ major concern is to meet the global best practices in its mode of operation on roads.

He said: “We are trying to apply the global best practices to see how we can reduce the number of casualties on the highway. We are equally cooperating with the ECOWAS region to see that we maintain uniformity and similarity,” he said.