Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu proposed to host the African Central bank in his country's capital, Abuja, Tinubu said at the 37th African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday.
“[Tinubu's] administration will engage the African Union Commission in collaboration with member states to ensure that the bank takes off as scheduled in 2028,” the Nigeria's Presidency said in a press release published on X.
The establishment of such an institution is one of the stages of the implementation of the Abuja Treaty, an agreement signed in 1991 that called for the eventual creation of the African Economic Community.
The president added that Africa's ability to effectively address its challenges depends on its strong determination, based on a solid foundation of deep-rooted unity.
“As a continent and as individual nations, we face strong headwinds and difficult hurdles threatening to complicate our mission to bring qualitative democratic governance and economic development to our people. Many of these obstacles, such as climate change and unfair patterns of global trade, are largely not of our making. However, some of the pitfalls, including coup-birthed autocracies and the deleterious tinkering with constitutional tenure provisions, are developmental cancers we as Africans are giving to ourselves,” he stated.
The president also commented on the military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, as well as the withdrawal of the three countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), stating that disagreements regarding the unconstitutional government changes should not lead to a permanent break in regional unity and collaboration.
“To all who care to listen, I declare that if you come to the table to discuss important matters in good faith, you will find Nigeria and ECOWAS already sitting there waiting to greet you as the brother that you are,” Tinubu said.
Speaking on education, which is the central focus of this year's summit, the president underlined that it is crucial for developing innovative solutions to the longstanding difficulties faced by the continent.
“[...] Africa must also become better educated in the humane art of democratic practice, diplomacy, and conflict resolution without violence,” the Nigeria's leader emphasized.
Lastly, Tinubu invited all participants of the meeting in Addis Ababa to the upcoming African Counter-Terrorism Summit in April this year in Abuja, designed to discuss the causes of the terrorism on the continent.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, echoed President Tinubu: he advocated for revival of nationalism, pan-Africanism, unity and action, highlighting the urgent challenges confronting the continent, among which are terrorism, conflicts and violence, and unconstitutional changes of government.