Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr . Geoffrey Onyeama, in this interview with IHEANACHO NWOSU spoke on his visit to Russia, Africa Union and plan to close some embassies.
What will be the take home after the Africa Day celebration in Moscow?
The take home will be that Russia is ready to engage more with Nigeria and engage more with Africa in the areas of priority to us, that is security and the economy. This is a very good thing. We are trying to diversify our economy . Diversification is not just in strengthening various sectors, but also in engaging with every partner . Russia has unique value that she can add to our economic relations in the area of oil and gas and power and agriculture and also science and technology. These are areas they are particularly strong and they can help our industrialization drive.
For Africa too, Russia will help us peace keeping . Their role in United Nations, as one of the key five, permanent members of the Security Council, they will have an influence in the resources the United Nation will make available for peace keeping in Africa. Most of the peace keeping duties undertaken by United Nations are in Africa . We will certainly need the support of Russia as we know that there is call by the other key four members to reduce the amount of money available for peacekeeping in Africa.
And off course terrorism is an area we also want to cooperate with Russia. It is a global challenge. They also face terrorism challenge and we look forward to stepping up our cooperation with Russia in the area of fight against terrorism.
We look for Russia’s support in the reform of the United Nations and also to support Africa in the UN as a permanent member of the security council.
Does this represent a shift from the Western partners to Russia for Nigeria and Africa?
No. You know we have always pursued a policy of non-alignment. So for us, one of the strength of our foreign policy thrust is friendship with all the countries of the world. So it is really in this sense that we see increase in our relationship with Russia. Our outreach to Russia is not against another countries. We believe that we can be friends to all the countries of the world and this will even help towards building peace and security in the world. And in this context, I had discussions with the Russian foreign minister about issues outside Africa, Syria for instance and other international issues. I think that this kind of partnership is important where countries outside the immediate theatre of operations such as a country like Syria . It means that Nigeria can also play a role in promoting peace in that part of the world. So our relationship with Russia is not targeted at any country but it can also be a win-win for all countries.
When you said it is in the interest of the world to have a strong Russia, what do you mean by that?
What I mean by that is that it will have a balance, it will afford the world a likely balance. If you have one country that is totally dominant it might not always necessarily make for a balance approach towards issues. We believe in multilateralism. We believe that the big issues of the day, global issues should be addressed on a multilateral framework. That is a framework of the United Nations. And you are more likely to have that when you have different poles of strength and influence. If you have a unipolar world, you are also most likely to have a process that does not really have to have the consensus of many other countries.
What are some of the benefits that are expected to come to Nigeria from this visit?
The immediate derivable, they have agreed to deliver some military equipment, some helicopters. They are very much in the pipeline. They are going to sign up a 110 scholarships for Nigerians. So these are very immediate gains that we can look forward to. In terms of medium to long term benefits , they are interested in investing in Aluminum and agro sectors . They also want to come into infrastructure. Another area and probably very crucial in the immediate is in the nuclear field, peaceful use of nuclear for power for energy. They are also in the process of helping us in the setting up of research and development centre .
The agenda 2063 for Africa, what is it all about?
The 2063 agenda is the roadmap for Africa Union. As you know, the OAU was set up in 1963 and so after 50 years, we have 50 years agenda. A long term agenda for African development. It includes socio-economic development, cultural development, technological development and of course governance development. So, this is the roadmap that African heads of states have adopted in the framework of African Union. A lot of work is in that agenda. It is actually similar to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. So in implementing that, since we have also subscribed to the SDGs, they will be complimentary as we go forward. And one of the most important item of the agenda, 2063 is the silencing of the gun. And this is the determination of Africa countries and Africa heads of states that by 2020 all the guns in the continent will be silent , we will not have conflict on the continent.
In the area of trade, where are we with Russia, and where do you think we will be in the next five years given the fact that the current balance of trade is in favour of Russia ?
You have a very good point. The level of trade is quite low . This is one of the things we talked about . We hope, in the next five years, it will be much much higher. It is not up to a half billion dollars trade between the two countries . Precisely what we are looking forward to right now is much more increased trade. The two sides quite agreed that based on the size of our countries and the resources the level of trade should be much much higher . We will be working towards it in the next five years.
We learnt that some Nigerians are in prison, while some are at the deportation camps at the moment did you in anyway discuss the issue with Russian authorities?
We took this matter up at the embassy here and what we understood was that unlike so many other countries, we do not have a large number of Nigerians in prison in Russia . The picture is not the same in countries like China.
What are you doing to assist those at the deportation camp who might likely stay longer there as the Russian authorities are saying they don’t have the fund to deport them right now?
In all fairness, in our briefing, this was not something received as an issue by our embassy but now that you raised the matter, we will take it up again with the embassy and find out what the real situation is. Certainly if there are Nigerians who are to be deported, then we will obviously step in. As you know, our policy is that we do engage with countries on issues of deportation because they cannot be deported unless there is emergency travel document available depending on the nature of the status- irregular migrant or regular migrant . We have mechanism to deal with that . We will look to see because we are not aware that it was an issue in Russia as it is in so many other European countries. We will take it up and see what can be done.
Is the embassy in Russia among the countries that will be shut down?
No, Russia is not among the countries we are considering closing the embassy. In fact we are very happy with the Embassy in Russia. They have actually not been facing the kind of challenge of financial crisis embassies in other countries have been facing . We feel that in many respect, this has been a model embassy in terms of management of it’s resources and fund.