A member of the House of Representatives, representing Ideato North/South federal constituency of Imo State, Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere Ikeagwuonu, has praised the Speaker of the House, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, for pushing for better socio-cultural and economic cooperation among African countries.
Abbas had called for a better transportation system that connects African countries for better integration and cooperation while speaking at the 18th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC), Africa Region, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on Wednesday.
Abbas said, “I want to chip in something on what my Namibian colleague experienced concerning our challenges when it comes to transportation in Africa. This is not just peculiar to the East African side, even we in the West African countries where Cameroon is one of the countries, I am sorry to inform you that this is my very first time of visiting Cameroon, even though Nigeria shares a common border with Cameroon. Under normal circumstances, it does not take 15 to 20 minutes drive from one part of Nigeria to Cameroon. But because of the issues of logistics that we are facing on air transportation and land as well, you will find out that majority of Cameroonians don’t know what is happening in their neighbouring countries and vice versa.
“How can you foster economic and social cooperation when people – neighbours – don’t even know anything about each other? So, we need to really work not only on air; we need to try ways of improving our land transportation like railway connectivity. Take an example when you go to Europe – the Schengen areas, it takes you less than one hour from one country to another. And you will do it so seamlessly without knowing that you have passed a country and you are in the next country.”
Meanwhile, commending and corroborating Speaker Abbas, Ugochinyere, who’s the Deputy Chairman of House Ad-hoc Committee on Media, said a better transport connectivity can foster better integration and social cooperation in Africa.
He opined that an increase in transport connectivity also enables less costly commercial interactions, which results in more opportunities to trade.
Ugochinyere added that Abbas is a visionary leader, who is focused on working with his counterparts in other African parliaments, political and other stakeholders towards fostering economic growth, innovation, prosperity and cooperation within the African continent.
