Don’t allow outside powers to destabilise our economy, Buhari tells African leaders

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.”

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.