The EU’s Africa Trust Fund must Be The Beginning Not The End Of Global Investment

This was written by Dr Bukola Saraki,President
of the Senate for BeyondBrics at Financial
Times.com.
It was published Yesterday...
We need a regional development and
infrastructure plan to defeat Boko Haram and
prevent a refugee crisis that could last a
generation
This week, the EU and World Bank meet to
discuss development financing as a means of
tackling some of the root causes of irregular
migration. This comes after last month’s Valetta
Conference where European leaders pledged
€1.8billion to address the potential causes of
migration in Africa. This was a crucial start but
we need further direct support for areas under
specific threat. In both the Middle East and
Africa there are clear crisis spots where a
majority of EU bound migrants stem. Eritrea,
Somalia, and South Sudan have been identified
but there also needs to be a focus on West
Africa, an area bearing the brunt of the
continent’s Islamist terror threat.
In Nigeria terrorist activity has increased
significantly since 2013, largely as a result of
Boko Haram. In the last week of November the
group claimed responsibility for a suicide
bombing of a Shiite Muslim procession near
Kano which killed 21 people, over 100 people
remain accounted for following a battle near the
town of Gulak and eight people were murdered in
an attack on the northeast region and
neighboring Niger.
The violence has led to over 2.1 million people
being forced from their homes, according to the
International Organisation for Migration. The
crisis is already spanning across a generation,
with the Nigerian National Emergency
Management Agency reporting that in two
months 410 babies were born in the refugee
camps in Borno and Adamawa state. The
Nigerian state is ratcheting up its support for
these people but without further international
engagement the region will continue to be a
source of sustained migration to Europe.
There is hope in the fight against the insurgents.
In working with our military and regional
partners, President Buhari has made progress in
winning back control of territories from Boko
Haram – which peaked at over 20,000 square
miles, something akin to a mini-state. Yet
without a comprehensive solution to the
insurgency Boko Haram will continue to pose a
very real threat – domestically and to Europe.
Economic disadvantage may not be the only
reason for the group and its affiliates ability to
recruit but it is fundamental to their narrative.
Which is why I welcomed the news of the EU
Africa Trust Fund, announced following the
Valletta Conference on Migration, which will
support development and poverty eradication, as
well as a range of other measures to increase
jobs and raise revenue in West Africa. But the
Fund is only the start – an important, but
limited, first step.
To meet only the most basic needs of
displaced persons in North Nigeria would require
$1 per person per day – a staggering $2 million
in total per day. Estimates of the cost of
reconstruction in Borno State alone have been
put at $1billion.
This is more than the EU Africa Trust Fund can
deliver and is more than Nigeria can carry alone.
Declining oil revenues have put our economy
under unprecedented stress. Historic corruption
and fiscal mismanagement has also, at times,
been a crippling factor. This is something both
the President and the Nigerian Senate is
addressing directly. But further international
support has to happen in parallel with domestic
reform.
There is no time to lose. The tragic refugee
crisis witnessed on Europe’s borders this year
was distinctly Syrian, yet failing to address other
burgeoning developmental and conflict issues
across the Middle East and Africa, such as the
threat of Boko Haram, now could lead to similar
or even worse crises in coming years.
In response to the Syrian refugee crisis,
companies like Goldman Sachs, Google and Audi
put principles before profit and donated millions
to Europe and its governments to improve the
capacity to support refugees. I hope companies
like these can see, in countries like my own, the
potential through the problems, and work with
international institutions to invest and resource
where it is needed.
At few points in Africa’s and Europe’s shared
history has our security been so intertwined.
Investment now is necessary to prevent a
generational refugee crisis that could hit Europe
for years to come. The EU’s Africa Trust Fund
must be the beginning, not the end, of global
action.
Dr Bukola Saraki
President of the Nigerian Senate