President Bola Tinubu will travel to Rome on Sunday, October 12, to attend the Aqaba Process Heads of State and Government Level Meeting, according to the State House.
The agenda is primarily on the security crisis in West Africa.
A statement on Saturday night by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, explained that the meeting would bring together Heads of State and Government, senior intelligence and military officials from African countries, and representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations to discuss the evolving security challenges in the West African sub-region.
‘The Aqaba Process Meeting is a counter-terrorism initiative launched by King Abdullah II of Jordan in 2015. It is co-chaired by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Italian Government.
‘It recognises the complex security challenges confronting West Africa, including the expansion of terrorist networks, the growing crime-terror nexus and the increasing overlap between land-based terrorism in the Sahel and the maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea,’ the State House said.
It added that participants would exchange assessments of the current security landscape in West Africa and foster collaboration between regional and international partners to address cross-border security challenges, in addition to developing strategies to counter the terror threat on land and the sea.
The statement read further, ‘The meeting will discuss ideas on how to coordinate efforts to combat online radicalisation and disrupt digital networks that facilitate terrorist propaganda and recruitment.
‘In addition to attending the plenary sessions of the Aqaba meeting, President Tinubu will hold bilateral talks with other leaders to explore ways of addressing the rising security challenges across the subregion.
‘The President will be accompanied by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed, and other senior government officials.’