The Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has encouraged Nigerian politicians to cease using insecurity as a weapon against their opponents in office.
She stated this while addressing attorneys in a keynote address entitled, ‘A Social Contract For Nigeria’s Future’ at the Eko Hotel & Suites in Lagos on Sunday as part of the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) 2024 Annual General Conference.
The former Nigerian finance minister said, “We cannot have socio-economic development without security. We certainly cannot have security without development,” the WTO chief said.
“We all know that security has been weaponised in our country for political purposes by political actors, leading partly to the situation we have now.
“We have politicians who believe that the best way to make their opponents look bad is to instigate insecurity making it look like they can’t govern, regardless of whether this leads to loss of lives and property of innocent Nigerians. This has to stop.”
The WTO chief stated that there are sufficient technological breakthroughs to trace crude oil theft and bring those responsible to justice in Nigeria. She stated that individuals responsible for putting an end to the “intolerable” conduct of crude oil theft no longer had any excuses.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “A second aspect of security relates to the security of national assets. Nigerians have seen for years how organised crude oil theft on a massive scale seriously undermines the economic and financial health of the country.
“All Nigerians must agree that stealing of our national assets of any type is intolerable and must be stopped.”
She stressed that oil theft has hampered the strengthening of the foreign reserves.
“There is so much technology available now to track such theft and there must be no more excuses for inaction.”
