President Bola Tinubu has departed Nigeria to participate in the 5th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union (AU) in Nairobi, Kenya.
The gathering will convene various African leaders, including Tinubu, who will attend in his capacities as the President of Nigeria and the newly appointed Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States.
Tinubu was accompanied by his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Dele Alake, his Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication, and Strategy.
The president will join heads of state and government, foreign ministers of the AU member-states, and high-level dignitaries at the mid-year meeting, scheduled for Sunday.
He is expected to present a report on the status of regional integration in ECOWAS, highlighting actions carried out during the period under review by ECOWAS institutions, member-states, the private sector, and other stakeholders.
The meeting, themed “Acceleration of African Continental Free Trade Area Implementation,” seeks to deepen integration through trade, free movement of persons, investment promotion, infrastructure development, peace, security and stability.
“The 5th MYCM will bring together the Bureau of the AU assembly, comprising the heads of state and government from Comoros, Botswana, Burundi, and Senegal, as well as the leaders of the eight RECs,” Alake had said.
President Tinubu is expected to return to Nigeria upon the conclusion of the meeting.
Before his departure, President Bola Tinubu mapped out 500,000 hectares of farmland for Nigerians and declared a national emergency on food security to tackle inflation following the removal of fuel subsidy.