President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will leave Abuja for Accra, Ghana, on Saturday, July 20, to participate in the Sixth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union (AU), Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Regional Mechanisms (RMs), and African Union Member States.
According to a statement issued on Friday, July 19, 2024, by Presidential spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu is attending in his capacity as the Chairperson of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government.
He will address the meeting on the status of regional integration across various areas in Africa, highlighting the achievements and challenges encountered in West Africa since the last meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2023.
President Tinubu will present the ‘2024 Report on the State of the Community,’ focusing on peace, regional security, governance, economic integration, humanitarian and social development, energy, mines, and agriculture.
The Mid-Year Coordination Meeting, conceptualized in 2017, serves as the principal forum for the AU and RECs to align their work and coordinate the implementation of the continental integration agenda.
The agenda for the Accra meeting includes evaluating the AU’s early warning and conflict prevention mechanisms and promoting cooperation among regional economic communities to accelerate integration. A declaration will be adopted at the end of the meeting.
President Tinubu, who was elected as the Chairman of ECOWAS in July 2023, delivered his maiden speech at the AU Fifth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, where he emphasized Africa’s strength and the need for unity.
Since his inauguration in May 2023, President Tinubu has visited various countries, including Paris, London, Bissau, Nairobi, Porto-Novo, New Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, New York, Riyadh, and Berlin, spending a total of 55 days abroad.
A report stated that the President spent N3.4 billion on these trips within six months of assuming office, which is 36 percent more than the N2.49 billion earmarked for the President’s travel expenditure in the 2023 budget.
This brings the total expenditure on local and foreign trips between June 2023 and March 2024 to N8.64 billion.
