Nigeria expresses intent to collaborate with China

Nigeria remains committed to collaborating with China and other African countries to ensure that the strategic objectives are achieved for the mutual benefit of all parties, says the country’s Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shettima.

Shettima made the remarks on Thursday when he represented Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, in Johannesburg, at the China-Africa Leaders’ Roundtable Dialogue Meeting.

According to the Vice President, “Nigeria welcomes the new initiatives introduced by the Chinese authorities, which include supporting and promoting the modernization of Africa’s agriculture and agribusiness sectors; providing robust support for Africa to expedite regional integration and backing Africa’s industrialization and infrastructure expansion.”

Shettima spoke to a large audience including President Xi Jinping of China and other African leaders on the theme “Promoting African Integration and Jointly Building a High-Level Africa-China Community with a Shared Future.”

He commended the existing partnership between China and Africa particularly the three newly identified initiatives and priority areas of cooperation in the areas of agriculture, industrialization, and human capacity development.

He said these align with the “Renewed Hope” mantra of Tinubu Administration, the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030, adding that “they are relevant to our continental and national development aspirations.”

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The Vice President praised the commitment of China stating that “Nigeria firmly endorses China and anticipates forging a close collaboration with the Chinese authorities, the African Union, and all stakeholders.”

While appraising the partnership further, the Shettima identified critical areas for the prevailing partnership between Africa and China to include “fostering synergy among the pertinent national institutions tasked with formulating, coordinating, and implementing national policies in the three priority areas of cooperation; and encourage efforts that promote African ownership of these initiatives.

Relations with global south

On Nigeria’s relationship with the global south, Vice President Shettima told his audience that Nigeria prioritises its relations with the Global South and deeply values all aspects of the South-South Cooperation, noting that the Global South is currently grappling with unparalleled challenges.

“We are compelled to devise solutions for climate change and establish security measures to contain and prevent transnational crime, terrorism, and cyberattacks. We are confronted with a significant rate of youth unemployment and disruptive natural disasters.

“This situation provides us with the chance to reassess the challenges we collectively face, as well as those confronting our partners”, Shettima observed.

In his address during the Roundtable Meeting, the President of China and co-chair of the Dialogue, Xi Jinping pledged to African leaders that his administration would launch initiatives to support Africa’s industrialization and agricultural modernization.

China will host the second Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Agriculture in Hainan this November, Xi said, adding that China will provide additional emergency food assistance to some African countries in need to help Africa tackle the current food crisis.

Xi called on China and Africa to work together to create a sound environment for realizing their respective development visions by promoting just and equitable international order, practicing true multilateralism and unequivocally opposing vestiges of colonialism and hegemonism in all forms.