Tinubu to depart for China after returning from France

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is preparing for a trip to the People’s Republic of China one week after returning from France.

According to Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, the Chinese at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, Ngelale said the China engagement, which is expected to take place in the first week of September, is part of the present administration’s efforts to uplift Nigerians’ wellbeing.

Tinubu is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping of China where Some Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed in China.

President Tinubu will also meet with ten Chief Executive Officers of companies in China in the areas of
Oil and gas, Aluminum production, Agriculture, and Satellite Technology.

On July 25, 2024, China’s Vice minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Chen Xiaodong, visited Nigeria and delivered an invitation to Tinubu, telling the Nigerian leader that “he is an important leader and strategist in Africa.”

Xiaodong further added that his visit to China and “meeting with President Xi Jinping would open up more discussions and opportunities for Nigeria and Africa.”

Tinubu, upon receiving Xiaodong and his delegation, commended “what President Xi Jinping is doing in Africa; helping with capital mobilisation for projects that positively impact the lives and livelihoods of our people in Africa.”

He also noted that “the infrastructure need of Africa is monumental, particularly that of Nigeria.” Tinubu, who accepted the invitation to visit China, expressed his hope that such a visit would strengthen the existing bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

The ninth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is being elevated to a Summit of the Heads of State and Government and it will be the fourth of such summits since the founding of the forum in 2000.

The first summit was held in Beijing in 2006, and the second, held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2015, was followed by another summit in Beijing in 2018. The fourth summit, which is the ninth round of the triennial conference of China and Africa, will hold in Beijing in September.

As a veritable mechanism for Africa and China engagement, the FOCAC process has been credited with both being a platform for dialogue and consultation and more importantly, enabling practical and tangible outcomes that have generated concrete inputs to the national aggregates of participating African countries.

From infrastructure constructions, trade, and investments to vigorous cultural and educational exchanges that have considerably upscaled capacity building and skill acquisition in Africa, the FOCAC process has responded to the existential needs in the region and helped in no small measure to ameliorate the historical infrastructure and connectivity deficits.

The second and third summits which were held in Africa and China respectively, since the assumption of office by President Jinping, were particularly game-changing in the China-Africa cooperation mechanism.

The two summits with the combined funding support of $120 billion outlined critical and targeted areas of cooperation, including infrastructure construction, industrialization, agricultural modernization, healthcare, capacity building and personnel training, and cultural and educational exchanges, which have contributed immensely to the recovery of economies in Africa with practical outcomes of job opportunities, expanding intra-Africa trade, while also promoting the prospects of Africa regional trading mechanism, the African Continental Free Trade Area.

The FOCAC mechanism has become Africa’s most impactful platform of international cooperation and though, devoid of the paraphernalia of international bureaucracy like imposing secretariat with an Army of Staff to butt, it is, however, extensively consultative with in-built follow-up that leaves no room for complacency.

The multi-layered framework of dialogue and engagement has continuously broadened as it is fitting for the current phase of comprehensive China-Africa cooperation as the crucial and strategic pivot in advancing the construction of a community of shared future for humanity.

Already, Nigeria-China cooperation is a vital driver of the overall framework of China-Africa engagement, and the summit having Nigeria’s participation will reposition and reinvigorate the pivotal position of Nigeria in the evolving trajectories of its bilateral relation with China whom it shares the same national day.