Nigeria, Germany to set up bi-national commission

Nigeria, Germany to set up bi-national commission
Hauwa Noroh Ali, Abuja

Nigeria's President, Goodluck Jonathan says Nigeria and Germany will set up a bi-national commission to drive technical, economic, trade and development cooperation between them. 

Jonathan made the statement on Thursday at a joint press briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the State House, Abuja.

Both leaders had a closed door session before addressing reports.

The commission

Jonathan underscored the importance of a closer tie between Nigeria and Germany, particularly in the area of economic, trade and technical development.

He said that the bi-national commission would be the driving force for the co-operations.

“We agreed that we will have a strong bi-national commission that will be meeting from time to time to discuss things that are dear to the two nations so that we will be able to move faster.

“We have a lot of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) that we signed, the energy sector is one of these key areas that the German Government has been playing a key role and also in the gas sector,” he said.

Jonathan noted that some of the MOUs do not move as fast as expected. He said: “we don’t have a standing body that drives the process and that is one of the things we have agreed today that we will look into to make things move faster than it used to be.

“The technical people will look into this so that the relationship between Nigeria and Germany will continue to flourish.’’

He said the commission would be driven by the foreign ministers of both countries and a technical team, which would be set up.

He said Nigeria would benefit from the commission in the areas of increased productivity, infrastructure development, building of Industries and attracting investments into the country.

Jonathan thanked the chancellor for finding time to visit Nigeria at this transition period and said it “is quite unique in our history’’.

Merkel congratulated the president for conducting free, fair and credible elections and on his victory at the polls.

She wished the new government a huge success and added that Nigeria must overcome the problems of corruption, political instability and insecurity which were hindering its development.

“Today we make a point that it is very important that Nigeria succeeds in fighting violence and terrorism in its society to attract investments and guarantee the security of the Nigerian people.

“We make it very clear that respect for human rights, especially that of the minority rights, is also very important,’’ she said.

Bi-national co-operation

Merkel said Germany was prepared to assist Nigeria, pointing out that Germany had done so and would do more in the areas of developmental co-operations with focuses on the training and education for young people in Nigeria as well as in the area of eradication of various diseases.

She noted that her country had been following Nigeria’s engagement and commitment to peace-keeping in the African continent in particular and the world in general and appreciated the leading role it played.

Resolving conflicts in Africa

“We believe that it is going to be our priority to ensure that conflict solution, peace and security on the African continent should be first and foremost the task of African countries and Nigeria plays an important role in this regard,’’ Merkel said.

Responding to questions on trade imbalance between Germany and Nigeria, Merkel said it was important for Nigeria to extend its industrial base and diversify its economy from sole dependence on oil.

Need to diversify economy 

She observed that right now Nigeria relied so much on imported goods such as foods and petroleum products, and pointed out that these could easily be produced in Nigeria thereby rectifying the imbalance in trade.

“Germany could be of help in this respect because we can make available the experiences we have gained in small and medium scale enterprises and we hope that the country build more refineries and set up fertiliser plants,’’ she said.

Williams