Continent Must Secure Resources in Gulf of Guinea – Yar’Adua
Daily Trust (Abuja)
NEWS
7 September 2007
Posted to the web 7 September 2007
By Elkanah Chawai
Abuja
Nigeria and other African countries must quickly move to meet the challenge of securing the energy resources of the region for the benefit of their peoples, President Umaru Musa Yar’A-dua said in Abuja yesterday.
Yar’Adua was speaking at the State House during the visit of the Executive Secretary of the Gulf of Guinea Commission, Mr. Carlos Gome, who briefed him on the ongoing establishment of the Commission’s headquarters in Luanda, Angola.
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President Yar’Adua said members of the Gulf of Guinea Commission have the responsibility to ensure that the energy resources of the region are peacefully exploited in ways that will bring development to them.
The Commission was established in August, 2006 with Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome & Principe, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon as member-states.
He said the Gulf of Guinea has been of strategic interest to global powers, tasking the Commission to facilitate greater collaboration among the eight member-countries to protect these resources and holistica-lly address environmental issues that may arise from their exploitation.
President Yar’Adua assur-ed Mr. Gomes of Nigeria’s commitment to the actualiza-tion of its objectives.
“I assure you that the Gulf of Guinea Commission remains very important to us,” he told the executive secretary.
Yar’Adua urged the Commission’s secretariat to expeditiously take all necessary action to ensure that the commission begins to fulfil its mandate in the shortest possible time.
