Tinubu Heads to Rome for High-Stakes Security Summit

President Bola Tinubu is set to depart Abuja on Sunday for Rome, Italy, where he will participate in the Aqaba Process Heads of State and Government Level Meeting.

The meeting, scheduled to begin on October 14, will focus on tackling the worsening security crisis in West Africa.

Tinubu will be joined by key officials, including the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, and the National Security Adviser, retired AIG Nuhu Ribadu.

“The meeting will discuss ideas on how to coordinate efforts to combat online radicalisation and disrupt digital networks that facilitate terrorist propaganda and recruitment,” said Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy in a statement late Saturday.

According to Onanuga participants will exchange assessments of the current security landscape in West Africa and develop strategies to counter terror threats on land and sea.

Persecondnews reports that the Aqaba Process Meeting is a counter-terrorism initiative launched by King Abdullah II of Jordan in 2015, co-chaired by Jordan and the Italian Government.

The meeting aims to strengthen international collaboration against terrorism and organized crime networks that have destabilized parts of Africa.

The statement reads: “Participants will also develop strategies to counter the terror threat on land and the sea.

“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.”

The summit will also address the spread of extremist groups in the Sahel, the growing nexus between terrorism and organized crime, and the rising overlap between land-based insurgencies and maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.