In a powerful goodwill message at the inaugural African Chiefs of Defence Staff Summit in Abuja, eminent Scholar-Diplomat and former Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, issued a clarion call to redefine Africa’s security framework to secure sustainable peace and stability.
Speaking at the summit, themed “Combating Contemporary Threats to Regional Peace and Security in Africa: The Role of Strategic Defence Collaboration,” Gambari, erstwhile United Nations Under-Secretary-General (Political Affairs) and former Chief of Staff to the late President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, drew attention to efforts by African security experts to revive the African Union’s (AU) bid to operationalize the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and its African Standby Force (ASF), originally slated for activation by 2015.
He lamented the failure to meet the AU’s Agenda 2063 goal of “Silencing the Guns” by 2020, now postponed to 2030, declaring that conflict is still going on in Sudan, South Sudan, the Sahel, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Southern Africa, which undermines the continent’s goal of “Silencing the Guns”.
Citing research by the African Research Network for Regional and Global Governance Innovation, Gambari, the founder/, Chairman of the Board of the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy & Development (SCDDD), noted that over 1,000 insurgency groups operate across Africa, a development which fuels what he described as banditry, terrorism, and instability.
Drawing from his extensive experience in security and peace building across various theatres of the world, Gambari also identified what he described as a lack of political will as the primary barrier to security in Africa.
Gambari, a former Chairman/Head of the hybrid joint United Nations-African Union’s Peacekeeping Mission for Darfur, pointed out that Africa’s security crises reportedly stem from factors such as poor governance, power struggles, and resource mismanagement.
While providing insights and solutions, Gambari urged a “comprehensive, whole-of-government approach, integrating customs, immigration, and societal efforts to tackle these threats.”
He called for regional and continental collaboration, emphasizing joint military operations, shared intelligence, interoperable armaments, and enhanced airlifting capabilities to strengthen security across Africa.
He said: “I have been priviledged to be part of discussions and contributions for the actualization of security structure – especially the operationalization of the African Standby Force (ASF) to be deployed to quell egregarious violations of human rights and also combat contemporary threats and feel strongly about the urgency of making Africa a continent where human security, in all its dimensions, can be enhanced.
“So, what holds the African Standby Force back? Without preempting the discussions which would shortly commence in this Conference, it is the paucity of political will that is the main culprit.
“And unlike similar collective defence structures like NATO that envisage an external aggressor, threats to African security emanate from within the sovereign states.
“Indeed, contemporary threats to peace and security spring from poor governance, the primacy of the struggle for power, lack of inclusiveness, and the gap between revenue and budgetary allocations and the needs of the people.
“Africa’s collective security can only be enhanced without active, practical, and proactive collaboration at the regional and continental levels.”
