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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The president of the Republic has stressed the need for the continent’s citizens to sacrifice their lives for the sake of peace and security in Africa, saying, “we must find African solutions to African problems”.  

 

Speaking Monday while addressing members of the African Union Peace and Security Council as well as other delegates who called on him at State House in Banjul shortly after the end of their emergency meeting on the situation of South Sudan and Central African Republic, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Jammeh emphasised that the continent must be prepared to solve African problems in Africa. “If we decided that we are going to be members of the Peace and Security Council, then we must be ready to sacrifice our lives. So this meeting is timely as it will prepare us to know what we should talk about in order to resolve these problems in our continent,” he told the delegates.

 

Describing the process as their responsibility, President Jammeh emphasised that the AU Peace and Security Council should be given advice to the United Nations Security Council as to what should be done and not the other way round. “The United Nations Security Council taking a decision on an African matter and then push it back to us Africans is unacceptable,” he stressed.

 

He continued: “In this world we cannot avoid being happy and being annoyed; inter-personal relationship is all about one annoying the other and at the same time, being able to work out and come to conclusion. I have been telling my colleagues about the case of Somalia, that if we had taken the action we are taking now, Somalia wouldn’t have come to this stage.” The President thus stressed the need for actions to be taken when necessary and not until everything is too late, thus calling for pragmatism towards peace and security issues in the continent.

 

The Gambian leader used the opportunity to thank all the members for coming despite the short notice, especially at a time when most of them are preparing for the Christmas and New Year festivities.

 

“As the chairman of the African Union Peace and Security Council for December, [we can’t] see Gambians dancing whilst our sisters and brothers in the Central African Republic and in South Sudan are killing each other. The African Peace and Security Council is supposed to take lead on all the African problems, so, I don’t have to wait until it is too late. As the chairman, I decided to convene an emergency summit to know what needs to be done on the recommendations of the summit, but unfortunately, this Council has been waiting for another council from outside Africa. If we have decided that we should find African solutions for African problems, then we should take the lead,” he concluded.

 

The vice president and Women’s Affairs minister, Aja Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy, the commissioner for Peace and Security at the African Union, as well as the Foreign ministers of Nigeria, Cameroon and The Gambia took turns to thank The Gambian leader for the initiative. 

Author: Musa Ndow
source: http://observer.gm/africa/gambia/article/jammeh-calls-for-african-solutions-to-continents-problems