President Goodluck Jonathan will on Monday travel to Nairobi, to participate in a meeting of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council scheduled to hold in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in a statement on Sunday, said deliberations at the meeting were expected to lead to more collaborative actions by Nigeria and other African countries to rid the continent of terrorism and violent extremism.
According to Abati, the Nairobi meeting, which is a follow-up to talks by Jonathan and other African leaders in Pretoria, South Africa in May on joint action against terrorism, would receive and consider the report of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Terrorism and Violent Extremism in Africa.
“Deliberations at the Nairobi Summit and the adoption of the African Chairperson’s Report by President Jonathan, President Uhuru Kenyatta and other participating Heads of State are expected to lead to more collaborative actions by Nigeria and other African countries to rid the continent of acts of terrorism and violent extremism.
“The President, who will be accompanied to the Nairobi Summit by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed, the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) as well as other advisers and aides will return to Abuja at the conclusion of the meeting on Tuesday,” he stated.
The summit, which will be chaired by Chad’s Idriss Deby, in his capacity as Chairman of the Council, has on its agenda the ongoing violence by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria, the insurgency in Mali as well as other terror-related activities in Africa.
The Peace and Security Council is the African Union’s standing decision-making body responsible for the maintenance of continental peace and security and it came into existence officially on December 26, 2003.
It has 15 members, elected by the AU Executive Council on regional basis (three from Central Africa; three from East Africa; two from North Africa; three from Southern Africa; and four from West Africa).
Members are elected for three-year (five members) or two-year (ten members) terms and can be re-elected immediately for another term. There are no permanent members and no veto. PSC chairmanship rotates on a monthly basis, in alphabetical order of the English-language names of member states.
