President
Dilma Rousseff of Brazil has accepted an invitation from President
Goodluck Jonathan to visit Nigeria before the end of the year.This is part of efforts to boost economic and trade relations between both countries.Her state visit to Nigeria has been tentatively fixed for November. President
Jonathan, who is expected back to the country on Friday from Brazil,
according to a statement by his media aide, Dr. Reuben Abati, extended
the invitation at a bilateral meeting with the Brazilian President on
Wednesday. The meeting took place during the ongoing United Nations' Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.The president noted that greater economic and developmental cooperation would be in the mutual interest of Nigeria and Brazil.The
President also said that Nigeria will welcome increased Brazilian
support and cooperation for the development of mechanized agriculture,
power generation and other sectors in which citizens of the South
American nation are globally acknowledged experts.Also,
Jonathan called for the revitalization of the Africa-South American
Cooperation Forum which was jointly initiated by Nigeria’s former
President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his Brazilian counterpart, Mr.
Lula Da Silva as a platform for the promotion of economic and political
cooperation between the two countries and continents.Accepting
President Jonathan’s invitation to visit Nigeria, President Rousseff
said that she will come with Brazilian investors and businessmen with
expertise in many fields to give them an opportunity to meet their
Nigerian counterparts with a view to establishing profitable joint
ventures.She
assured President Jonathan that Brazil, currently the world’s sixth
largest economy, would be glad to deploy the skills and expertise which
its people have acquired in many fields, including engineering,
construction, technology, public infrastructure, hydro-power generation
and large scale mechanised agriculture for economic growth and
development in Nigeria.
The
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has criticized President Goodluck
Jonathan for embarking on a trip to Brazil for the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development at a time Nigeria is facing what
could be described as a national emergency, as citizens continue to die
from gun and bomb attacks in several cities.
The party, in a
statement issued in Lagos, Tuesday, by its National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the decision by the President to travel two
days after dozens of innocent Nigerians, including women and children,
were killed or maimed by suicide bombers in Kaduna State, is a sign of
insensitive and confused leadership.
It said the fact that the
trip was announced by the presidency as theYobe state capital, Damaturu,
was being terrorized by attackers raised
serious concerns about the Jonathan administration’s commitment to the
security and welfare of the citizenry, which is the rason d’etre of any
government.
ACN said the President should have cancelled the
trip as a symbolic act of a caring leadership and out of respect for the
souls that were lost and are still being lost across the country.
”Again, we are constrained to ask whether this President is getting
quality advice from the myriad of aides surrounding him, or whether,
like his benefactor, Olusegun Obasanjo, he has decided he may not even
take any advice from his advisers. In other climes, the usual thing is
for leaders to cancel foreign trips or rush home from such trips when
their countries suffer tragedies.
”In April 2010, Chinese
President, Hu Jintao cut short his Latin American tour and returned home
after a strong earthquake hit the west of China; This year, South
Sudanese President Salva Kiir returned home early from his visit to
China, due to the rising tension along the border of his country with
Sudan, and even a phone-hacking scandal was enough for British Prime
Minister David Cameron to cut short an African trade tour and return
home in 2011.
”Since our own President has not even left
Nigeria when these latest tragedies broke, it is inexplicable that he
will still hop into a plane with a huge entourage and fly out. He should
realise that he is attending the conference because he is the President
of Nigeria, not because he is Dr. Jonathan. Therefore, Nigeria’s
paramount interest dictates that he stays at home and oversees efforts
to prevent the precarious situation in Kaduna from degenerating into an
all-out religious war,” the party said
