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Okonjo-Iweala |
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has stated that insecurity in Nigeria is being weaponized for political reasons.
Speaking on Sunday at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos State, Okonjo-Iweala emphasized the critical link between security and development.
“We cannot have socio-economic development without security,” she said. “We certainly cannot have security without development. We all know that security has been weaponized 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 appear as though they can’t govern, regardless of the loss of lives and property of innocent Nigerians. This has to stop.”
Okonjo-Iweala also highlighted the detrimental impact of crude oil theft on Nigeria’s financial health.
“Nigerians have seen for years how organized crude oil theft on a massive scale seriously undermines the economic and financial health of the country,” she said. “All Nigerians must agree that stealing our national assets of any type is intolerable and must be stopped.”
She added that there is ample technology available to track crude oil theft, and there should be no excuses for not utilizing it.
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