The President of ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Tourey, has called on member states to mobilise financial resources urgently to fund its action plan against terrorism.
Tourey made the call in Abuja at a meeting of ECOWAS Ministers of Defence and Finance convened to activate a sub-regional standing force against terrorism and unconstitutional change of government.
“Ministers, we have an urgent task to mobilise the financial resources to fund our regional action plan against terrorism.
“More than ever, we are at a pivotal moment in the history of our community to address insecurity and establish a more secure environment for economic growth and development of our community.
“We have lost so much to terrorism and for the fight against terrorism, financially and economically, both as individual member states and as a community.
“This is the time to make additional sacrifices by all member states towards rescuing our community from terrorism and its attendant impact on national economies and well-being.
“It is my conviction that your deliberations would yield fruitful results for a much safer ECOWAS region,” he said.
Also speaking, Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, said that the financial implication of the ECOWAS standing force proposal was huge as it is estimated to cost about 2.6 billion naira annually to set up a brigade of 5,000 men.
“Therefore, our gathering here today is driven by the urgent need to consider the financing options in the memorandum to be presented by the ECOWAS Commission for deploying the proposed regional force.
“Those figures underscore the gravity of the task before us and the necessity for a robust and sustainable resource mobilisation strategy.
“It is, therefore, imperative that we review the options critically considering the current challenges confronting our sub-region and the financial constraints facing various member states,” Badaru said.
