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Osinbajo to lead Nigeria’s delegation to AU summit

Published

July 11, 2016

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 27th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) from Saturday, July 16 to Monday, July 18, in Kigali, Rwanda.

This was disclosed on Monday, July 11, by Geoffrey Onyeama, the Foreign Affairs Minister, at a pre-AU session news briefing in Abuja.

Onyeama said the summit would afford Nigeria the opportunity to showcase the successes recorded by the current administration and also also provide opportunity for critical appraisal of the 20 billion dollar Nigeria-Algeria trans-Saharan gas pipeline project under the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

The trans-saharan project when completed would transport about 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Warri through Niger Republic to Algeria and the pipeline would be operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Sonatrach of Algeria.

According to him, Nigeria is expected to share experience on the efforts on women empowerment at the summit which has “African Year of Human Right” as its theme.

He said: “Nigeria will be letting other African countries to know what we are doing to promote human rights, including steps taken to extend and uphold human right while dealing with tumour in the country.

“As part of measures at enthroning human rights in the country particularly in the North-East, the administration has taken steps to de-militarize the zone as well as investigating and punishing reported cases of abuse.”

Speaking on the adoption of the African Union passport, the minister said it was a “major step towards trade liberalization in Africa.”

He said the AU passport would make it easier for member-countries to do business with each other and allow freer movement of people in the continent. Onyeama noted that Nigeria might not field any candidate for vacant positions in the AU during the meeting.

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