Celebrating 20 yrs of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI

Today 30th of July, marks the twentieth year of the ascension to throne by King Mohammed VI. It is festivity that seeks to demonstrate the significant role being played  to carry the almost 37 million people of  Morocco by the Muhammad IVs empathetic Kingdom, along. Records on the socio-economic activities or performance of  Morocco over […]

Today 30th of July, marks the twentieth year of the ascension to throne by King Mohammed VI. It is festivity that seeks to demonstrate the significant role being played  to carry the almost 37 million people of  Morocco by the Muhammad IVs empathetic Kingdom, along.

Records on the socio-economic activities or performance of  Morocco over the  20 years in focus, have indicated amazing transformation that has made the country noticeable not only in Africa where it ranks fifth on economic scale, but globally in terms of peace in diversity.

As one the Nigerian dailies reveals, many reforms have been successfully undertaken in political, economic and social fields and the country has made significant economic progress, with its GDP rising from 41.6 billion dollars in 1999 to 121.4 billion this year.

The impressive economic performance has been translated into a per capita income doubling in the two decades, from $ 1490 to $ 3,360.  To attract  direct foreign investments, Morocco gives infrastructural development the premium needed, resulting in putting in place the largest port in Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.

The same earnest drive makes it possible for Morocco to have first very fast train line in Africa and in the Arab world, as well as the  largest solar power plant in the world. These are in addition to an extensive network of highways, tramways and two of the biggest care manufactures in Africa in just a span of  20 years.

On the international level  Morocco is considered to be a reliable and exemplary  partner in deploying  its disciplined combatants to serve on various peace keeping and security missions across the globe as provided  in relevant United Nations charters which it has ratified.  Two years ago, Morocco ratified its membership of the African Union, which took effect from January 2017.

This was the result of the constant commitment of Morocco to contribute to the development of the rest of Africa within the framework of South-South cooperation. As it believes that to be strong, the country has to belong to a strong continent. In this regard, Morocco lays emphasis in its cooperation policy, the training of managers and skilled workers. Technical assistance and experience sharing in all areas is the second most important pillar of the cooperation policy.

In this field more than 1500 cooperation agreements have been signed with more than thirty other African countries. Public and private corporations have also been firmly committed in recent years to this policy towards the rest of Africa. Morocco has become one of the most important African investor in the West Africa region and the 2nd largest African investor in the continent.

This presence involves telecommunications services with the Maroc Telecom mobile operator present in about ten African countries, as well as  in financial services with three Moroccan banks being present in more than thirty countries in Africa, as well as in the industrial sectors, and in the construction and public works sectors.

Morocco, the world’s largest exporter of phosphates, contributes to the development of African agriculture and the food security of the continent by providing cheap fertilizers adapted to their needs of farmers and to the nature of soil and crops.

This policy has enabled the Nigerian government to achieve a significant decrease in the price of fertilizer to farmers, and the rehabilitation of a large number of production units (blenders), creation of thousands of jobs and ultimately the improvement of agricultural yields.

Morocco and Nigeria have pledged to build an industrial compound for fertilizer production in Nigeria. Moreover, the construction of the pipeline that will link Nigeria to Morocco is a major flagship project of cooperation between the two countries whose spinoffs aim to benefit the entire region.

This multifaceted and multi-sectoral cooperation also includes the religious dimension. In order to fight Islamist radicalism, which is the ideology on which terrorism feeds, Morocco, which prides itself as a land of tolerance, hosts hundreds of preachers and students of theology at the Mohammed VI Institute for the training of Imams from several countries including Nigeria.

Morocco has also created the Mohammed VI foundation of African Ulemas in order to develop the peaceful and tolerant Islam trough Africa.

Nigeria and Morocco are two countries linked by multi-century human and cultural ties. When someone visits Sokoto, Kano or Borno, one might believe he is in Morocco since there are huge similarities in terms of way of life, music, traditions, and in all aspects of culture. Morocco and Nigeria have vocation to be strategic partners.

It continues to baffle outsiders how Morocco thrives so hugely despite its almost theocratic government and multiculturalism, especially in terms of internal security and sustainable social welfare.

A close look at its socio-political setup reveals that, the system revolves around the leadership skill in ensuring that democracy only plays catalytic role in governance. This approach to leadership trains and deploys erudite Islamic scholars to refute and confute claims of extremism, as well as disseminating the spirit of tolerance and the rejection of immoderation, that way meeting the various religious and cultural needs of citizens.

The Royal Palace full of scholars versed in Islamic and Western education, makes it binding on itself to handle orientation, reorientation and assignation of Imams and preachers, to mosques and other institutions to guide in managing public life according to what is not in contrast with the final rulings stipulated in the authentic Sharia texts, but guaranteeing peace and harmony within the multicultural setting.

In line with this broad policy, the state’s general budget is nine-tenths of that of religious affairs because it meets social needs while the revenues of religious endowment assets is one tenth of this budget.

The seat of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs, which manages the field of religious affairs, is in the royal palace, represented by eighty-two delegations in the country’s regions and provinces.

During the last three decades, a number of customs in the field of religious affairs have migrated from their oral customary form to an organized legal form which facilitates recourse to them in preserving the constants and managing religious services.

Morocco represents various cultures and human races, while preserving the specificities that enriched its human and non-material wealth.

Its unity, is forged by the convergence of its Arab-Islamist, Berber [amazighe] and Saharan-Hassanic [saharo-hassanie] components, nourished and enriched by its African, Andalusian, Hebraic and Mediterranean influences [affluents].

Through closer and vigorous cultural relations with Morocco, Nigeria being diverse in nature, stands to learn and benefit a lot, about promotion of sustainable peace and harmony, in a multicultural setting. This is in addition to the already exponential beneficial economic relations between the two nations.

Ahmad Tijjani Lawal wrote from Kano