The Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Waziri Tambuwal on Wednesday charged West African Development Partners and the European Union to assist Nigeria in securing the Golf of Guinea from oil pirates in the face of the shrinking oil production in Nigeria.
Speaking at the opening of a three-day 10th ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly meeting hosted by the House at the National Assembly complex, Tambuwal said West African Development partners and other partners in Europe must deepen their interests in security in the Gulf of Guinea, which has become a haven for pirates and illegal oil bunker-ers.
Nigeria first played host to the meeting in the year 2000.
“The problems of oil theft, illegal oil bunkering and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea are matters deserving of collaborative and co-operative approaches of our countries and the international community to tackle head-long. The regional summit of some African Heads of State that held recently in Yaounde, Cameroun is one such positive response to an alarming development which if not checked has adverse implications for regional and global security, supply of oil and revenues accruable to our governments”, he warned.
Tambuwal said he was glad that, ” these ugly phenomena are among the issues for discussion at this forum”.
He disclosed that the “National Assembly of Nigeria is considering a legislation to deal decisively with this menace and we call for the cooperation of all Parliaments the world over to join in sanctioning oil companies and other persons engaged in this nefarious act”.
At the opening of the inter-regional partnership meeting where European Union partners and other African Countries were in attendance, the Speaker who played host, attributed the insecurity that has engulfed the country and other parts of África to the protests across the Arab world, and sought the assistance of development partners at the conference in tackling them.
“As a region, we have been negatively impacted by the Arab spring, and particularly the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. The proliferation of light and heavy weapons which fell into the hands of Non State Actors are causing havoc and instability. The Nigerian government is trying to come to grips with the situation and some drastic measures, including the declaration of a state of emergency in the most-affected states, have been taken.
” This meeting could not have come at a better time than now for the West African region. The security situation in the region should obviously take centre-stage”, he adviced.
He also called on development and regional partners to prioritize infrastructure linkages, regional integration and Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
