Shettima: Africa’s Priority Is Fighting Poverty, Not Testing Nuclear Weapons

Vice President Kashim Shettima has said that Africa’s current priority is addressing the challenges of poverty and climate change, not the pursuit of nuclear weapons capability.

Shettima stated this when he hosted the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), Robert Floyd, at the State House in Abuja on Monday.

The CTBTO is a multilateral treaty that bans nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions.

The Vice President dismissed concerns that Africa could be used as a testing ground for nuclear weapons.

“The outcome of any nuclear conflict is never a win-win situation; it is always the opposite,” Shettima told the CTBTO executive secretary.

“We are fighting poverty; we are fighting a war against the relationship between the economy and ecology in sub-Saharan Africa. We have no business dabbling in anything that has to do with nuclear weapons,” he said.

Shettima reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to the comprehensive nuclear test ban and praised the CTBTO’s efforts in detecting tsunamis and volcanic seismic activities.

“Your functions are contributing to the global stability of our ecology,” Shettima said.

Floyd commended Nigeria’s leadership role in reducing nuclear testing and for helping to establish strong global norms against it.

Also present at the meeting were the acting Chairman of the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), Anthony Ekedegwa; the Director-General of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), Yau Idris; the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dunoma Ahmed; and CTBTO’s Senior External Relations Officer, Charles Oko.