Vic Pres. Yemi Osibanjo at the AU Summit in Togo (Photos)

Nigeria's Vice Pres. Yemi osibanjo last weekend represented Pres. Buhari at the AU summit which held in Lome, Togo. According to him, he said..

On Saturday, I represented President Muhammadu Buhari at a one day summit organized by the member states of the African Union. At the summit, we signed an African Charter on Maritime security, Safety and Development in Lome, Togo.

90% of African trade is by Sea, so this is absolutely important to us. Similarly, out of the 54 AU countries, 38 are coastal.

The blue economy is one of the major areas of focus of the charter, the huge economic activities and benefits derivable from around the waters is jeopardized by maritime crimes like piracy and smuggling.

The Gulf of Guinea and the Horn of Africa in particular are areas where there had been a lot of piracy and in our case, the Delta.

Nigeria and other AU nations are devoted to the question of security of the oceans. We are working with other members-states of the AU to ensure that we are able to police the seas and our waters so that we are able to yield the maximum benefits from the blue economy.

By signing the charter, African leaders intend to improve security off the coasts, and hope to inspire greater, coordinated economic activities and development. The Charter will also ensure improved information-sharing between coastal countries and others in Africa, a gap pirates and smugglers have taken advantage of in their movements and operations on the African waters.

Observers say Africa could have lost as much as hundreds of billion in dollars due to unbriddled activities of piracy and smuggling on the African waters in the past few decades.

Together, we will prevail.