Nigeria has rejected the proposal to create a new department in African Union (AU), from the existing political affairs, peace, and security (PAPS) department.
Gatekeepers News reports that this was disclosed in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy.
Nigerian diplomat Bankole Adeoye, the head of PAPS Department, won the election for a second term at the 38th ordinary session of assembly of heads of state and government which ended on Sunday.
Speaking at the assembly, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu represented by Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, said though Nigeria supported the idea of reforming the union, creating another department out of an existing one would increase spending.
He said, “We do not support the proposal to reconfigure the department of political affairs peace and security (PAPS) as the reconfiguration of the PAPS Department in the way currently suggested will only lead us to incur more expenditure needlessly.”
“We already have an SOD under the directorate of PAPS. We cannot have a peace support operations directorate independent of the directorate of political affairs, peace, and security.”
“We believe any attempt to create another department from the existing one will destabilise the AU political affairs and peace and security process.”
“It is also important that issues that were never brought to the attention of member states are not part of the reform.”
Tinubu called for inclusiveness and transparency as integral parts of the system reform, noting that AU should instead focus on implementing adopted policies and programmes.
He said, “It is in this connection that Nigeria wishes to reiterate that instead of seeking to reach consensus on all fronts of our reform in one sweep, we should concentrate on areas where we have already reached consensus.”
“There is no harm in carrying out reform in phases. It would be an error to continue seeking consultation on all fronts in perpetuity.”
The president said it is important to make the continental body more vibrant, viable, and relevant to the needs of member states in the face of rapidly changing global political and economic realities.
He assured the union of Nigeria’s continuous support of the reform process as long as it remained transparent and inclusive and did not “needlessly” destabilise the status quo.
