President Muhammadu Buhari has asked his counterparts on the continent to resist attempts by “outside powers” to destabilise Africa’s economy.
Buhari spoke during the inauguration of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery on Monday.
The president said while Nigeria has the human capacity to lead the continent to economic prosperity, African leaders must work together if agenda 2063 must be achieved.
Buhari, whose tenure comes to an end in six days, said Africa must integrate its economy, eliminate barriers to trade, and energise its youthful population “to scale up our productive capacity”.
“We must create necessary conditions for our private sector to grow and partner with the public sector to accelerate economic growth across the continent,” he said.
“We must not allow outside powers, through some of our leaders, to destabilise our economic and political trajectory.
“The footprints of the Dangote Group and other Nigerian entrepreneurs are popping up in an increasing number of sister African countries.
“The president’s at this event, from my brother’s from Ghana, Togo, Niger, and Senegal, is evidence of the progress in this regard.”
On Monday, five African presidents graced the inauguration of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery — a 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) facility deemed to be the largest in Africa.
The African leaders include; President Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger Republic, and President Mahamat Déby of Chad.
Akufo-Addo, in his speech, said Africa is blessed with abundant natural resources, and it would “be wholly unfair for the world to demand that Africa abandons the exploitation of these resources needed to finance development that help us to cope better with the threat of climate change”.
The Ghanaian president said the development and industrialisation of the wealthy nations of today were also hinged on the exploitation of their natural resource.
“Countries that have discovered crude oil in West Africa [need] to find ways of bringing a substantial hydrocarbon resources get to production quickly to especially, with the aid of modern technology, exploitation can produce less emission that occurred in the past,” Akufo-Addo said.
“Furthermore, we must add value to these resources and not export them in the raw form, if we have to transition to the status of developed countries.
“The effective management of these resources will depend, to a large extent, whether we make it or not.”
On his part, Sall, said the Dangote Refinery was a source of pride for the entire African continent.
He described the facility as a great investment that “confers great respect and admiration to Nigeria”.
“The Dangote Group is certainly helping to meet the challenge of universal access to electricity, to give fertiliser and to give opportunities to the other African countries,” the Senegalese president said.