Buhari cancels trip to Rwanda

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has apparently canceled his planned trip to Kigali, Rwanda, to participate in Wednesday’s Extraordinary Meeting of African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government.

While in attendance, he would have signed the framework agreement for the establishment of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had last Wednesday approved that Nigeria should sign it during the Kigali meeting despite opposition from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

Going by the initial arrangement, the president would have left for Kigali on Monday.

The first set of his delegation had already arrived the East African country while the second set was recalled from Lagos on Saturday where they had been scheduled to fly to Kigali.

While briefing State House corespondents on the outcome of FEC presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, had justified Buhari’s signing of the agreement, saying that there were benefits to be derived from endorsing the agreement.

He also disclosed that Nigeria was bidding to host the headquarters/secretariat of the AfCFTA.

The Presidency had also issued a statement on the benefits of the agreement, saying that Nigeria stands to benefit from expanded market access for its exporters of goods and services; it will spur growth and boost job creation, eliminate barriers against Nigeria’s products and provide a Dispute Settlement Mechanism for stopping the hostile and discriminatory treatment directed against Nigerian natural and corporate business persons in other African countries.

It will establish rules-based trade governance in intra-African trade to invoke trade remedies, such as safeguards, anti-dumping, and countervailing duties against unfair trade practices, including dumping, trans-shipment of concealed origin of products and support the industrial policy of Nigeria through the negotiated and agreed “Exclusion and Sensitive category lists” to provide space for Nigeria’s infant industries, among others.

But the NLC had expressed opposition to Nigeria’s signing of the agreement because of its belief that it would be detrimental to the country.

President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, had recently declared the Congress’ opposition, saying, “We at the Nigeria Labour Congress are shocked by the sheer impunity or blatant lack of consultation in the process that has led to this.

“We are more worried by the probable outcome of this policy initiative if it is given life because of its crippling effect on the local businesses and attendant effects on jobs.

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“We have no doubt this policy initiative will spell the death knell of the Nigerian economy. Accordingly, we urge Mr. President not to sign this agreement either in Kigali or anywhere. We believe our national interest is at stake and nothing should be done to compromise this.”

However, Enelamah had said that his Foreign Affairs counterpart, Geofrey Onyeama, had been mandated to widen consultations with stakeholders, including National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).

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He said: “African market is 1.2 billion, we are 180 million. We have an ambitious economic agenda, and we are going into this wanting to clearly improve market access for our products and our people.

“We are also going into it wanting to protect our markets from unfair trade practices – dumping, smuggling and all the other things that can go wrong.

“FEC directed that we should makes sure that those things are built into the detailed paper work that will follow. And more importantly, in the implementation, whatever ways and means are needed that they should be addressed. So, we have a lot of work to do achieve those objectives.

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“The president also gave a set of objectives for negotiations in February 2017 and those points were also in those negotiations and those points have been met in terms of the framework. Now, we have to deal with the details and ensure that the implementation will be good enough.”

When contacted on Saturday evening, Special Adviser to the president on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, said his office would issue a statement on the matter or the Minister of Foreign Affairs would brief the press.