By Emmanuel Nduka
Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has warned multilateral finance institutions against defunding oil and gas projects in Africa.
His warning comes as developed countries continue their drive to phase out polluting fuels, saying such a step would have medium and long term consequences on African economies.
The VP who gave this warning while delivering a virtual address at the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, added that drastic actions would ultimately impede the aim of phasing out fossil fuels.
“We need to ramp up energy access in response to this situation, which is why the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies must be just and fair. We are emphatic in our view that natural gas, which Africa has in abundance, must be accepted as a transition fuel.
“Although, we in Africa are working towards the globally accepted net-zero future, we are also conscious that our energy needs are increasing with the growth in our economies. We must not allow this worrying situation to be compounded further by global inaction, processes and rules that make it difficult for Africa to adapt to climate change or indeed to develop,” he said.
He further urged the international community to meet its pledge that was recently re-affirmed at COP-26, of providing $100 billion annually in climate finance to support climate change efforts in developing countries, and called for a waiver on the intellectual property rights, to allow African countries produce COVID-19 vaccines to contain the spread of the virus and improve protection for Nigerians and Africans.
While lamenting that less than 10 per cent of African countries had vaccinated 40 per cent of their population, he also warned that there would be a relatively slow rollout of vaccinations in Africa due to resource constraints.
“There are also the issues around African countries being able to produce their own vaccines. And that is entirely possible with cooperation, especially around intellectual property issues. We have to look at issues around patent rights, intellectual property rights, and exclusivity rights; especially if we’re going to improve the chances of African countries to manufacture vaccines locally.
“We have to look at relaxing those rights. Patent waivers and intellectual property waivers will be important. These are proved to be a problem now. No one seems to be making much progress in that respect. But we can’t really talk about African countries producing their own vaccines if we don’t address those important structural problems. I think that could very easily be done,” the VP added
Listing some of the progress made on the African continent, Osinbajo noted that “there is now in place an African Continental Free Trade Area agreement to fast-track economic transformation just as the continent is making giant strides in agriculture, manufacturing and digital technology.”
On the issue of peace and security, he stressed that African countries face a serious threat of terrorism arising from the encroachment of global terror groups and their franchises into Africa.
“It is imperative for the international community to make more robust interventions to clear terrorists from Africa just as it did in the Middle East and other parts of the world. The United Nations Security Council must find unanimity in working with and assisting African countries to eradicate the menace of terrorism in the continent once and for all,” he added.
The Vice President urged multilateral organisations to consider the huge obligations placed on African countries and adopt debt relief initiatives such as the Debt Service Suspension Initiative and the Common Framework for Debt Treatments in a manner that would not further constrain the resumption of growth to the continent.
On governance, Osinbajo called on the international community to support the efforts of West African leaders, under the auspices of ECOWAS, particularly their condemnation of the incidences of coup d’états and unconstitutional changes in government in the region.
