President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to leave Abuja today to travel to Rome, the Italian capital, to attend the heads of state and government level conference of the Aqaba Process.
King Abdullah II of Jordan started a counterterrorism initiative in 2015 with the Aqaba Process meeting.
It is co-chaired by the Italian government and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The president’s special assistant on communication and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said in a statement that the meeting’s main emphasis is the security situation in West Africa.
In order to examine the changing security concerns in West Africa, presidents of state and government, top military and intelligence officials from African nations, and members of intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations will gather at the meeting, which is scheduled to start on October 14.
The proliferation of terrorist networks, the rising crime-terror nexus, and the growing convergence between maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and land-based terrorism in the Sahel are just a few of the complex security issues that the summit acknowledges are facing West Africa.
As per the announcement, the meeting’s attendees will share their opinions on the present security situation in West Africa and encourage cooperation between regional and global partners to tackle cross-border security issues.
Additionally, participants will create plans to combat the threat of terrorism both on land and at sea.
Ideas for coordinating efforts to counteract online radicalisation and disrupt digital networks that support terrorist recruiting and propaganda will be discussed during the meeting.
Tinubu will engage in bilateral discussions with regional leaders to discuss strategies for tackling the growing security issues in the subregion, in addition to attending the plenary sessions of the Aqaba meeting.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Bianca Ojukwu, Minister of Defence Mohammed Badaru, National Security Advisor (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu, Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Mohammed Mohammed, and other government officials will accompany Tinubu.
