Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun has reaffirmed the readiness of the Chinese government to partner with the incoming administration of President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Chinese envoy made this known at a one-day seminar on China-Nigeria Symphony held at the Univerisity of Abuja New Campus on Tuesday.
The ambassador stated that China through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) facilitated the construction of significant infrastructural projects under the Muhammadu Buhari administration and is willing to replicate same with the incoming administration.
He said, “China is willing to work with the next Nigerian government. I have spoken with President-Elect Tinubu and the vice president-elect. We have shared a lot of ideas. I have also shared my ideas with outgoing President Buhari. We believe that the current government has set a solid foundation for the incoming government.
“It is important to state that in 2022 alone, Nigeria and China achieved $24bn in trade volume thanks to the BRI initiative of President Xi Jinping. There is a huge potential that we can work together. The most important thing is how to increase our productivity in Nigeria and I am working hard to try and build industries here and get more Chinese investments into Nigeria especially the industrial parks and free trade zone.
“I am working hard to achieve big things here. In Nigeria, we have challenges, we have difficulties, but we have hardworking people, we have smart people, and we have talented people. I have confidence that we can work together, in the economy, the police sector, and the military as long as we develop our economy to give young people the opportunity to have decent jobs, and decent incomes.”
The seminar which was organized by the University of Abuja in partnership with the Chinese Embassy and the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) saw the presentation of papers on Nigeria-China relations.
Recall that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner of the 2023 presidential election after polling a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his main challengers, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who got 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.
The former Lagos state governor will be sworn-in as Nigeria’s next president on May 29, 2023, after the expiration of President Buhari’s tenure.
