By Ifeoluwa Babajide
President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria has been re-elected as the chairperson of ECOWAS
He was re-elected as the head of the regional bloc during the 65th ordinary session of the authority of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government on Sunday 7th of July 2024 in Abuja.
President Tinubu Called on the Head of state and Government of ECOWAS to work towards the establishment and sustenance of a regional standby force for the security and economic advancement of the community.
“The regional action plan against terrorism has enhanced cooperation on training,intelligence sharing, and humanitarian intervention. In addition to this the Minister of Finance and Defense met recently in Abuja to raise funds for activating the ECOWAS standby force to boost counter-terrorism efforts .
Member countries are also displaying their commitment to combating insecurity by individually increasing their defense budgets in order to acquire necessary equipment and ensure preparedness,the president said”.
“We must ,therefore ,ensure that we meet the expectations and recommendations of set forth by our Ministers of Defense and Finance in order to counter insecurity and stabilize our region, he further added”.
He advised ECOWAS leaders to leverage the capabilities of Nigeria’s National Counter-Terrorism centre (NCTC),which has been widely acknowledged as one of the best on the continent.