By Adedapo Adesanya
The Vice President, Mr Kashim Shettima, has said Nigeria remains committed to collaborating with China and other African countries to ensure that the partnership’s objectives are achieved for the mutual benefit of both parties.
He stated this yesterday when he represented President Bola Tinubu at the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg at the China-Africa Leaders’ Roundtable Dialogue Meeting on the margins of the 15th BRICS Summit.
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.”
Mr Shettima spoke to a large audience, including President Xi Jinping of China and some African leaders, on the theme Promoting African Integration and Jointly Building a High-Level Africa-China Community with a Shared Future at the Sandton Convention Centre.
He commended the existing partnership between China and Africa, particularly “the three newly identified initiatives and priority areas of cooperation between China and Africa in the areas of agriculture, industrialization, and human capacity development.”
He said these align with the Renewed Hope mantra of the President Tinubu-led 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.”
He further 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.”
The VP envisioned that this collective effort would elevate the Africa-China comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to unprecedented heights, driven by our mutual pursuit of economic prosperity.
While appraising the partnership further, the Vice President identified critical areas for the prevailing partnership between Africa and China, including “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.
Other areas include “the new undertakings should be designed in a manner that acknowledges local particularities, is community-based, and tailors to individual country needs, “amplify international resources for financing education in Africa; Solicit input from pertinent African Union institutions and continental organizations such as the African Development Bank (ADB), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, and other related regional bodies.
The VP also stressed the importance of “financing Africa’s Infrastructure, with a focus on advancing key infrastructural components like farm-to-market corridors, farm-to-ports corridors, export transport corridors, railway networks, road network upgrades and expansions, airport enhancements, including dedicated export-oriented airports, power generation, transmission, and distribution.”
On Nigeria’s relationship with the Global South, the VP 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”, he submitted.
On his part, the President of China and co-chair of the Dialogue, Mr Xi Jinping, pledged to African leaders who attended the meeting on the sidelines of the Summit that China would launch initiatives to support Africa’s industrialization and agricultural modernization.