Speaking at an interactive session on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, the president, who observed that the recent Libyan crisis accentuated the problem, pointed out that terrorists would want to instigate crises because of the money they make out of it.
He was speaking on the theme “De-Risking Africa” as one of the panelists at the World Economic Forum, saying that Africa needed the cooperation and support of the International community to deal with terrorism on the continent
He rationalised the deployment of Nigerian troops in Mali, noting that the measure was necessary to prevent the crisis from spilling over to other West African countries.
President Jonathan warned that unless the crisis was properly handled, Africa was at risks of being run over by terrorists while the situation would put investments at risk.
According to him, “One fundamental problem in Mali is the issue of governance and religious extremism. The terrorists aspect and issue of hostage-taking for the purposes of ransom and drug traffickers happened because of the crisis in Libya.
“And of course the terrorists will always want to instigate crisis because they make money out of it,” he said, adding that “if we do not contain the problem of Mali, definitely it will affect other African countries and that is why Nigeria had to move fast and we thank the government of France.”
Jonathan spoke alongside his South African counterpart President Jacob Zuma, Sunil Bharti Mittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel limited, Graham Mackay, Executive Chairman of SABMiller and President of International Crisis Group, Louise Arbour.
He also stated that the Malian crisis has been fueled by the instability in other African countries like Libya, noting, “definitely if you look at the situation in Mali, if it is not contained it will spill to other West African countries. If the region was made stable we would not have had those crisis in Libya and Mali would have been better than what it is now.”
On the theme of this year’s forum, President Jonathan noted that Africa was not the only one facing risks as there were generally risks involved in any business venture anywhere in the world, depending on the circumstances.
He said: “Before this time African states were quite politically unstable. We have had military intervention and where government is not stable and where the political system is not stable, it is a big risk in terms of investment, because laws could be changed arbitrarily.
“Over the period most of the African states now have stable political systems. Currently about 33 African states have conducted successful election two times where one civilian administration has handed over to another. In Nigeria we have done our elections four times, in the past we never experienced that.
“In terms of political stability, African countries have been reasonably de-risked because government has become stable and because the political system is stable it also affects economic planning,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, His South African counterpart, President Zuma said African leaders are working together to solve the shortfalls in the country’s infrastructure, but they are held back because, in many cases, transport and other links were relics of the colonial era.
“If colonialism left us with no infrastructure, the solution is to grow the economy,” he added, stressing that the Organisation for African Unity is working on “very concrete measures” for improving infrastructure.
But Paul Kagame of Rwanda stressed that Africans had to trust themselves – not outsiders – to solve their problems.
Speaking from the audience, he said: “For me, the major problem I see is that Africa’s story is written from somewhere else, and not by Africans themselves.”
Zuma, also speaking on the last labour crisis in his country, said the South African government needs to “engage” with platinum and gold mining firms about proposed shaft closures and mass lay-offs and is not threatening them with licence reviews.
“We are not making any threat to anyone.
“We are saying let us come together, let us discuss. This affects all of us. It does not affect companies only.
The Executive Chairman of South African brewing giant, SABMiller Graham Mackay, also speaking at the Forum, called on African leaders to let private-sector businesses “fix” Africa’s problems.
Speaking alongside Presidents Jonathan and Zuma, Mackay, however, insisted that throwing the continent’s markets open to more investment would boost growth.
“Trust in economic growth to solve the problems of the continent.
“Economic growth comes from the private sector: business will fix it, if it’s allowed to. If you look at some of our operations in more rural parts of Africa, and you see the conditions that have to be endured: these are heroic endeavours in many cases,” Mackay said.
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