The Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged politicians in Nigeria to stop using insecurity as a political tool against their opponents.
She made this call during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association at the Eko Hotel & Suites in Lagos on Sunday.
In her keynote address entitled, ‘A Social Contract For Nigeria’s Future’, Okonjo-Iweala emphasized the importance of security for socio-economic development.
She said: “We cannot have socio-economic development without security. We certainly cannot have security without development.”
She lamented the politicization of insecurity in Nigeria, stating, “We all know that security has been weaponised in our country for political purposes by political actors, leading partly to the situation we have now. We have politicians who believe that the best way to make their opponents look bad is to instigate insecurity making it look like they can’t govern, regardless of whether this leads to loss of lives and property of innocent Nigerians. This has to stop.”
Okonjo-Iweala also addressed the issue of crude oil theft, saying: “A second aspect of security relates to the security of national assets. Nigerians have seen for years how organised crude oil theft on a massive scale seriously undermines the economic and financial health of the country. All Nigerians must agree that stealing of our national assets of any type is intolerable and must be stopped.”
She emphasized the need for action, stating: “There is so much technology available now to track such theft and there must be no more excuses for inaction.”
The event featured prominent personalities, including former President of Ghana John Mahama, President of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, and representatives of President Bola Tinubu, Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.
