Abuja shut down for WEFA

Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

Abuja, was virtually shut down of Wednesday morning as the much anticipated World Economic Forum for Africa (WEFA), took off in Nigeria’s capital city.

At least 13 heads of states and over 1,000 delegates are expected to participate in the World Economic Forum, Ms Elsie Kanza, Director, Head of Africa, WEF, disclosed at a pre-event briefing of the Forum Tuesday in Abuja.

President Goodluck Jonathan will later Wednesday declare the forum opened and also deliver the keynote address.

The three-day event is being held against the security challenges being faced by the country.

The Federal Government had last week ordered the closure of public offices and schools ahead of the forum.

The government had also advised private organisations operating in Abuja with large workforce to also close down their operation.

In obedience to this order, all the schools and public offices in the Federal Capital Territory were closed Wednesday morning.

P.M.NEWS investigations revealed that all the offices at the Federal Secretariat were closed for business while all the schools, including those located in the suburbs of FCT were also empty. However, some markets and major supermarkets are opened for business, though some of the operators told P.M.NEWS that they are experiencing low patronage.

The road that passed in front of the Federal Secretariat that also leads to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, the major venue for the event, has been cordoned off.

Soldiers and policemen are also conducting thorough searches on vehicles coming into the city.

The National Assembly had on Tuesday suspended its plenary for the remaining part of this week, to enable the lawmakers participate in the summit.

The Federal Government had indicated that the order to shut down public offices and schools from Wednesday, 7 May to Friday, 9 May when the forum will end is to ease traffic during the event in the capital territory as many major roads will be cordoned off.

The Federal Government since Monday began a deployment of heavy security cordon around Abuja and assured participants at the forum of their safety.

Well armed soldiers, police officers and officers of Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps have been deployed at strategic areas of Abuja and all the entry point into the capital city from adjoining states.

At Kugbo, which is less than a kilometre away from the scene of the two Nyanya bomb blasts and less than five kilometres to the Abuja city centre, military policemen armed with sniffer dogs joined the regular troops in screening of vehicles going into the city centre.

Frank Mbah, NigeriaPolice Force Public Relations Officer, said earlier in the week that security had also been beefed up at the proposed venue of the forum.

According to him, adequate security arrangements had been made at the designated hotels and guest houses where the delegates would be accommodated.

“We will ensure that the participants at the summit get the best in terms of security. The first thing we have done is actually to strengthen the security at all the gateways to the nation.

Mba added that the police had already deployed adequate sniffer dogs and handlers to the airports with a directive to pay special attention to things that could pose insecurity like Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), drugs and other dangerous weapons.

“We are also strengthening security not only in Abuja but also in other capital cities where we know some of the visitors may want to visit. Cities that can also act as transit points like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, where there are international airports.”

Ms. Kanza said the number of the participants at the Abuja event was one of the largest the forum had witnessed in the many years it had been hosted in different countries.

She said despite the security challenges, many world leaders had confirmed that they would be attending the event.
“We are expecting over a thousand participants from over 70 countries. More than half will come from African countries and many will come from the business community, NGOs and religious groups,’’ she said.

According to her, some the countries’ heads of states that would be participating as China, Republic of Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Rwanda, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Niger and the U.S.A.

Kanza added that as the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria has a crucial role to play in the region to ensure positive economic growth.

While noting that 59 per cent of African youths were unemployed, Kanza said the major focus of the forum would be on how best to ensure that Africa’s positive growth rate is more inclusive. She added that private sector participation would help to create job opportunities.

“The forum as you already have seen, will focus on inclusive growth, how to get policies change and better business modules that can help create jobs.

“It will look at how to make citizens to participate in making decision that can help change communities,’’ she said.
Kanza added that WEF was also concerned about the abduction of the school girls in Chibok and prayed that they would be rescued soon.

According to her, terrorism was a global trend that was not peculiar to Nigeria, adding that it had become a growing concern to the region too.

She assured that issues of insecurity in the region would also come up as one of the topics on the agenda at the meeting.