By John Okeke
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has called on Nigerian leaders to be willing in tackling infrastructural development.
This was said in a-two day National Consultation Workshop on ECOWAS post-2020 vision, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Finance and National Planning in collaboration with ECOWAS Commission in Uyo the capital of Akwa Ibom state in the South –south region of Nigeria on Monday.
In a lecture titled “Forging and Complimenting Regional Economic and Monetary Integration”, the Director, Department of Macroeconomic Analysis, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Adeosun David, disclosed that Nigeria is 130 in world’s infrastructure ranking and is only ahead of Burkina Faso in the Sub-region.
Adeosun called on the nation’s leaders to be willing to face infrastructural development and tackle it beyond lip service, adding that no meaningful development can take place without proper infrastructure in place.
The head of ECOWAS National Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. J. U. Oyi in his keynote address noted that the workshop is targeted at outlining expectations of the people of Nigeria, with regards to the formulations of ECOWAS vision-2050 documents.
Oyi said to achieve this, the workshop would be “consultative, participatory and forward thinking as the outcome of this workshop would be communicated to ECOWAS Commission as Nigeria’s position”.
The workshop was declared opened by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel who was represented by the Deputy Governor Mr. Moses Ekpo.
The governor thanked the organizers of the event for finding the state suitable for the South-south Consultative workshop and pledged the support of government and people of the state towards the realisation of post-vision 2020 for the Sub-region.
