Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, has advocated that the attainment of peace through fair trade will remain a mirage if African counties continue to surrender their unprocessed raw materials to advanced countries as export.

Presenting a keynote address at the 7th London Political Summit with the theme, ‘Achieving Global Peace through Trade’, held on Wednesday at the House of Commons, Westminster, London, Governor Emmanuel posited that “until value addition is undertaken by raw material bearing African countries and technology is transferred, fair trade will only remain an ideological concept, existing only in theory.”

The political summit was organised by Carter and Merger Ltd., United Kingdom and chaired by Prof. Kushan Devani MBE, with MP for Peterborough, Hon. Paul Bristow as Parliamentary Host.

Among other key participants at the event were the chairman of the Commonwealth Entrepreneurs Club, Mr. Mobin Rafiq and the Ambassador of Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyztan) to the United Kingdom, His Excellency Ulan Djusopov.

Governor Emmanuel was accompanied to the event by the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Bassey, his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong, Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Ekerete Udoh, and Special Assistant on Public Relations, Raphael Edem and Dr. Victor Adoji.

While in London, Mr. Emmanuel will also attend an investors’ forum, coordinated by Commonwealth Entrepreneurs Club, which will focused on ‘Small and Medium Enterprises, Maritime, Agriculture, Renewable Energy’.