By Emma Ujah,

President Hollande in his address to participants which included several African Presidents and Heads of Government said that all current challenges trying to pull Africa backwards must be stiflly resisted. Consequently, he called for a global push against the Islamists terrorists, Boko Haram, which threatens the security of Nigeria and the West Africa Sub-Region, in order to put it in check.

According to him, in the current age of globalization, “an attack on one country is an attack on all, as our destinies are interconnected.” The Nigerian government has been pleading for international assistance to defeat Boko Haram, since 2012 but much of what the nation has received, until very recently,  were mere promises.

World powers like America not only refused to sell fighter jets and other military hard wares to Nigeria but even blocked other countries of the world from selling what Nigeria needs to defeat the terrorists. Mr. Hollande expressed optimism that with establishment of the African Unity Force to fight the terrorists, and especially the cooperation, being currently demonstrated by Chad, Boko Haram would be effectively destroyed.

France, he said, went to Mali a few years back based on his conviction that not only was the Malian territorial integrity under threat, but the whole of West Africa could come under unprecedented attacks by the terrorists operating in Mali at that time.“We went to Mali because, not only was Mali going to lose its territorial integrity, all of West Africa was under threat”, he said.

President Holland also called the attention of the global community to the effects of climate change on the African continent, as a major cause of socio-economic upheavals in the region, especially as large numbers of people were being uprooted from their homes, owing to desert encroachment.