Author: Toju Ogbe

Nigeria & China Trade Value Reaches $12.3 Billion [January-November, 2017]

The Deputy Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Lin Jing, has disclosed that the bilateral trade value between China and Nigeria recorded from January to November 2017 stood at $12.3 billion.

In the words of Mr. Lin:

“The bilateral trade is a very important mechanism to boost our economic relationship.

We do not have the total trade volume for the whole year, but for the total volume from January to November, bilateral trade stood at $12.3 bn.

That represents more than 30 percent of increase compared to the same period of 2016; we believe that by maintaining our normal trade volume, our overall economic relation and cooperation will be boosted and give impetus to our overall relationship.

Nigeria is the biggest Chinese investment destination in Africa, the second largest export market and the third largest trading partner of China in Africa.”

Nigeria and China established formal diplomatic relations in February 1971.

The envoy, however, said both countries, in 2005, established strategic partnerships to promote relations in several areas and enhance continued people-to-people exchanges.

He said such strategic partnership was fostered as a result of Nigeria’s importance to China.

Agreements by both countries following the strategic partnership paved way for Chinese investment and development opportunities in Nigeria.

Lin reiterated the Chinese Government’s commitment to exhaust its efforts to promote development programmes in Nigeria.

Mr. Lin further stated:

“There is also a concept initiated by my ambassador called made in Nigeria with China.

I think this is a very good concept; there are many private investors in China, they have the expertise, experience and surplus industrial capacity.

They need to find the market. All these conditions we will make use of to see whether we can try something successful here.

We have friends in Africa and we want to further cement our friendship and we believe that by supporting each other we are going to have bigger win-win scenario.”

“$1 billion approved by NEC to fight insecurity in Nigeria” – Femi Adesina

Excerpts:

It is two and a half years into President Buhari’s administration. As the spokesperson, how do you assess the government?

I would rather that you had asked an impartial person that question because he can then answer it dispassionately. But if you ask an insider to assess the government in which he serves, naturally, he will rate the government well because he is serving in that government. But an impartial observer will be more neutral, more dispassionate. So, let’s leave the assessment of the government to those impartial observers. But all I would just say is that this government came in at a very difficult time in the history of this country. It has done its best in many areas. The times are still very difficult but the work continues.

Continue reading ““$1 billion approved by NEC to fight insecurity in Nigeria” – Femi Adesina”

“No cow, not even 10 billion cows, has enough value like a human being.” – Honourable Hassan Saleh

A member of the House of Representatives, Aishatu Dukku, believes that the reason for the ongoing farmers/herders clashes in the country is because God created herdsmen to value cows over human lives.

The representative of Dakku, Nafada constituency in Gombe state, made the comments during plenary session on Wednesday, January 17, 2018, when the lower legislative chamber was discussing the recent killings allegedly orchestrated by herdsmen in Benue and Taraba.

Aishatu Dukku’s statement:

“I don’t know why Nigerians have become so edgy now. Maybe because of the food we eat; we eat so much of maggi. We have become so impatient that we don’t want to listen to each other. We don’t want to proffer solutions that will be workable to our country.

Mr. Speaker, I sit here and my colleague is saying the herdsman values his cows more than the lives he is killing, but it’s not true. You can’t sit down here and just make conclusions.

Yes, the herdsman values even the life of the cow more than his own life. That is how God has created him.“

In response, lawmaker representing Ado/Obadigbo/Opkokwu in Benue State, Honourable Hassan Saleh, fired back at Aishatu Dukku.

“No cow, not even 10 billion cows, has enough value like a human being. So when you say God has created them (herdsmen) in such a manner that they value their cows more than human beings, I find that very insulting and demeaning,” he replied.