The President made his position known in Lome, Togo while contributing to the consideration and adoption of the Draft Declaration by the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Peace, Security, Stability and the Fight against Terrorism and violent Extremism.

According to the Nigerian leader, the subsisting collaboration among Nigeria, Chad, Cameroun, Niger and Benin in the fight against transnational crimes and proliferation of small arms and light weapons is exemplary.

President Buhari noted that Nigeria’s collaboration with the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), which is mandated to protect our environment, is existential because of the imperative to preserve the Lake Chad.

The President said the Lake which had shrunk by 90 per cent, “has directly led to the economic hardship in the region, which has in turn created the enabling environment for the radicalization of the youth.”

He, therefore, called for greater focus on the refilling of the Lake Chad as a long-term solution to one of the root causes of this existential threat.

During the opening session, the ECOWAS Chairman and President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbe; the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Mohamed Ibn Chambas; the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Mousa Faki Mahamat; and the ECCAS Chairman and President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, had underscored the imperative for collaboration to overcome regional security challenges.

In the final communiqué, the 26-member joint organisation strongly condemned all kinds of illicit activities and trafficking by terrorist and mercenary groups operating in the Sahel and some ECOWAS and ECCAS Member States.