By Francesca Hageior
President Bola Tinubu will, on Thursday, depart Abuja for Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, to participate in the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government.
“The President will join other African leaders in high-level meetings on institutional reforms of the African Union; peace and security,” Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement is titled, ‘President Tinubu to attend 37th AU summit in Addis Ababa.’
Tinubu is expected to discuss specific thematic issues such as climate change and modalities of the AU’s participation and priorities in the G20.
This year’s summit is themed ‘‘Educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa.’’
On the sidelines of the session, Tinubu will also attend an extraordinary summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in his capacity as the Chairman of the regional body.
“He will be accompanied on the trip by some ministers and other top government officials, and he is expected to return to Abuja following the summit,” said Ngelale.
Ethiopia is the fourth African state Tinubu is visiting since assuming the Presidency nine months ago.
It is also his 15th and 11th foreign destination and trip, respectively.
So far, he has visited Paris, France (thrice); London, the United Kingdom; Bissau, Guinea-Bissau (twice); Nairobi, Kenya; Porto Norvo, Benin Republic; New Delhi, India; Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; New York, the United States of America, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Berlin, Germany.