By Linda Nwabuwa Akhigbe
Nigeria may have been gifted the title of Giant of Africa because of its teeming population, vibrant and diverse; its vast arable land, and its massive oil wealth, but its Big Brother toga was definitely earned and well deserved.
It did not, to borrow the words of former President Nnamdi Azikiwe, come to us on a platter of gold. Great sacrifices were made. Over the years, Nigeria has put its reputation, its wealth and the lives of its citizens on the line for the sake of Africa’s progress. Sometimes it had gone well beyond the call of duty, abandoned self interest, even self preservation, without any prospect of gain, to ensure that an African nation or the African continent was treated right.
Nigeria’s many interventions during the liberation movements in Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa are well documented, and the famous speech by General Murtala Mohammed that ‘Africa has come of age’ and needs no one to tell it what its interests should be, is the stuff of legend.
At the 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union which ended in Addis Ababa last Sunday February 16th 2025, Nigeria was again at the forefront of efforts to make sure Africa gets the peace, respect and prosperity it deserves. As the current Chair of ECOWAS, President Bola Tinubu, who believes in taking bold, decisive steps, made sure that Nigeria’s interventions in various issues left no one in doubt about our place in Africa and our willingness to pull our weight both in the sub-region and on the continent as a whole.
It paid off handsomely. To begin with, the African Union endorsed Nigeria as the Digital Trade Champion for the continent under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Digital Trade protocol, following what the former president of Niger Republic and AU AfCFTA champion, Mahamadou Issoufou, said was astounding work done by Nigeria in convening the Digital Economy Roundtable in January.
In praising Nigeria’s efforts, Issoufou, who led Niger to its first ever democratic transition to power after two terms as president, noted that, “No organisation, region or continent has negotiated or adopted such a comprehensive legal instrument on digital trade, positioning the African continent to benefit from the digital economy for innovation and job creation [like Nigeria].”
Such high praise does not come from nothing. In just one year since the adoption of the digital trade protocol by the AU in February 2024, Nigeria had garnered an impressive record in promoting digital enterprise and innovation across Africa. The employment potential alone is enormous so perhaps this is to be expected from a nation with the third largest youth population in the world, after India and China, many of whom are unemployed.
However, in an age where technology has become the driving force for business and enterprise, the need for regulations and legal framework for data transfers remain critical. As the Digital Trade Champion for Africa, Nigeria is expected to drive synergy in a grand agenda to develop eight annexes covering such critical areas as rules of origin, digital identities, cross-border data transfers, legitimate and legal public interest reasons for disclosing source code, online safety and security, emerging and advanced technologies, and financial technology.
It does appear that President Tinubu went to the AU conference with an ambitious programme and, as expected, managed to accomplish a great deal. Even before the summit proper began, Nigeria secured its first major win with the election of Ambassador Bankole Adeoye for another term as African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security. Foreign Minister Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar who took time to brief President Tinubu on his arrival in Addis Ababa over this and other triumphs, also informed the president that Nigeria had retained its seat on the African Union Peace and Security Council, reaffirming, said Ambassador Tuggar, “Nigeria’s leadership and commitment to peace and security on the continent.”
These two events were to form the fulcrum of Nigeria’s intervention at the 38th Session. First, Nigeria having secured ambassador Adeoye’s re-election, had to vigorously block attempts to balkanize the department he heads, as part of efforts to reform the African Union. President Tinubu who commended his Rwanda and Kenya counterparts, Paul Kagame and Williams Ruto, for the quality of their reform report, however noted that the plan to create another department out of the existing one headed by the Nigerian diplomat was ill-advised.
“We do not support the proposal to reconfigure the Department of Political Affairs Peace and Security (PAPS) as the reconfiguration of the PAPS Department in the way currently suggested will only lead us to incur more expenditure needlessly,” he said. According to the Ecowas Chairman, “We already have a SOD under the Directorate of PAPS. We cannot have a Peace Support Operations Directorate independent of the Directorate of Political Affairs, Peace and Security. We believe any attempt to create another department from the existing one will destabilize the AU political affairs and peace and security process. It is also important that issues that were never brought to the attention of Member States are not part of the reform.”
President Tinubu was to make even more impact on the proceedings when the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) convened on the sidelines of the AU Assembly to deliberate on the ongoing conflicts in Sudan and the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The high-level session brought together Heads of State and Government, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ambassadors, and security experts from all AUPSC member states.
During the meeting, Nigeria, which supports a political resolution to the crises, reaffirmed its commitment to facilitating peace in both conflict zones. The President said Nigeria is ready to collaborate with Sudanese stakeholders to support an intra-Sudanese dialogue and took active role in the PSC Ad-hoc Presidential Committee of Five which had been working to mediate among warring factions in Sudan.
On the Eastern DRC, Nigeria backed the call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces, including armed groups supporting the M23 rebels. Nigeria also emphasized the need to respect the territorial integrity of the DRC and urged all affected stakeholders to commit to the Luanda and Nairobi peace processes.
Always concerned with question of instability in the West African sub region, the ECOWAS chair made cogent argument for the need for a systematic mechanism to address the intractable maritime challenges that continue to bedevil the Gulf of Guinea. President Tinubu noted that only through enhanced regional cooperation and resource sharing can such a viable solution be found.
The highlight of that discussion came when President Tinubu called for the establishment of a Combined Maritime Task Force to enhance security in the Gulf of Guinea, an area that is 2.4m sq kms and host to over a dozen countries, many of them members of the ECOWAS. In order to facilitate the process, President Tinubu assured the meeting of Nigeria’s readiness to host the task force’s headquarters in Lagos.
It must be noted that this proposal did not come out of nowhere. It dovetails into the president’s ongoing strategic efforts to combat maritime insecurity in the region. Indeed, on the same day, Nigeria signed an agreement with the AU to provide Strategic Sea Lift Services for peace support operations, disaster response, and humanitarian missions. Under this agreement, the Nigerian Navy is to supply a vessel for these operations on a cost-recovery basis.
Indeed, recognizing that Nigeria had a history of fighting terrorism and an even larger capacity for enforcing peace in neighbouring countries as demonstrated by Nigeria-led ECOMOG forces in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea Bissau, the AU Peace and Security Council approved the transformation of Nigeria’s National Counter-Terrorism Centre into a Regional Counter-Terrorism Centre. This upgrade is expected to “enhance collaborative efforts, streamline intelligence sharing, and coordinate counter-terrorism operations among member states, thereby strengthening the collective capacity to address terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea and surrounding regions.”
In its intervention over the place of Africa in the United Nations, Nigeria was unequivocal in asking for a fair and equitable representation of Africa in the UN Security Council, particularly in the permanent membership category of the United Nations Security Council. “We must continue to speak with one voice and unequivocally on issues of allocating two seats, in the Permanent Category, with all its prerogatives and privileges including the Right of Veto, and two additional seats in the Non-Permanent seat category of the Security Council, to Africa,” Tinubu said.
It must be said that the AU summit provided Nigeria with the opportunity to flex its size-able muscles as an economic, political and military powerhouse in Africa. By leveraging the nation’s leadership position within the AU, President Tinubu was able to champion vital reforms and initiatives to advance development in the continent.
Moving forward, it is important that Nigeria parlays its new foreign policy initiative, known as Strategic Autonomy, to lead the region from the front, and that it deploys its political influence, its military might, and its vast commercial and cultural impact to foster stability and economic growth across the continent.
•Akhigbe is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Strategic Communications
