Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has proposed a fundamental reorientation of the security partnership between Africa and the European Union.

Kalu made the proposal at a meeting with Ms. Ingeborg Ter Laak and Mr. Benjamin Oppermann, on the sidelines of his series of engagements at the European Union (EU) Parliament in Brussels, Belgium yesterday.

LaaK is a member of European Parliament as well as Vice Chair of the Delegation to the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and of the Delegation to the Africa-EU Parliamentary Assembly while Oppermann is Policy Adviser in the European People’s Party Political Group on Foreign Affairs (AFET Committee) and Security and Defence (SEDE Committee).

Kalu emphasised the need for an African-led, EU-supported framework, where the EU acts as a strategic enabler rather than a direct military intervenor.

The deputy speaker, who is leading as a delegation of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) noted that the prevailing model of direct European military intervention has proven unsustainable and largely ineffective.