French President Emmanuel Macron has invited President Muhammadu Buhari to the Africa-France Summit scheduled for June 2020 in Bordeaux, France.
Secretary-General, Africa-France Summit, Stephanie Rivoal, said this when she visited the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, on Tuesday in Abuja.
She said that the summit with the theme “Sustainable Cities” was aimed at helping African countries resolve the rural-urban drift among other challenges bedevilling the continent. According to her, Nigeria is expected to showcase its projects that have been proven to work at the two-day summit for all stakeholders involved in the development of cities. She said it was the wish of Macron for Nigeria’s president to attend the summit because of the importance of Nigeria in the continent. Rivoal also said that the summit, unlike every other summit is expected to provide concrete solutions to the challenges facing cities in Africa. “I will appreciate it if President Buhari will come with a delegation of people involved in city development.” She stressed that the summit wanted to provide a forum in which “ministers share ideas with one another on concrete solutions to the development of cities.” “Stakeholders will be there to look at what is the best for the people that live in those cities. “Besides, there will be concrete commitments by stakeholders and this will be followed up at the end of the summit,” she said. According to her, issues like how to ensure access to health, water, power and the rest will be discussed and also ways to make the rural areas more attractive to the people so as to curb rural-urban drift. This she said explained why the summit would be hosted in Bordeaux instead of the bigger city, Paris. The grand finale will be a football match between the World Champions, France, and the winners of the 2019 African Cup of Nations taking place in Egypt in June. Onyeama appreciated the invitation and said that Nigeria would love to be part of the summit. The minister said it was very important for Africa to manage growth and make the continent lively adding that it was something every society really had to address as cities were becoming a challenge. According to him, President Buhari is looking at how rural-urban drift can be curbed. “The challenges in improving quality of lives; to slow down and reverse the trend of urban-rural drift is something we are looking at and we hope to attain. “Building up the economy of rural cities is an excellent idea. We have to look at how to make rural cities friendly for the people. “I am sure that Mr President will keep the date as it is something he will consider,” the minister said.
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