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Nigeria's Foreign Minister speaks to BRICS partnership
Guardian Nigeria
Follow
1/27/2025
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News
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00:00
And Nigeria's foreign affairs minister has been speaking to Nigeria's recent membership
00:05
as a BRICS partner, stating that the move remains strategic in its engagement with countries.
00:10
Speaking on the sidelines of the 15th World Economic Forum,
00:13
Tugge stressed that becoming a BRICS member is still a work in progress. Take a look.
00:20
Well, you know, in terms of networking, WEF is second to none. So that's why it's important
00:27
for Nigeria to be present, to engage. And we've been doing that. So it's political engagement.
00:36
It's, of course, also economic engagement. And especially since we have,
00:45
some would say, an ambitious agenda, permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council,
00:54
membership of G20. Recently, we announced partnership in BRICS. So we're a BRICS partner now.
01:04
And of course, we are in the forefront of the push for a reform of the global financial
01:17
architecture. And of course, also the political decision making architecture.
01:22
So I imagine, as you say, sir, all the engagements that you've been having so far have been around
01:28
those points, as you said, political and economic engagements. What has the reception been to the
01:33
key stakeholders that you've been talking to? Very, very good. This morning, I was,
01:40
I accompanied the vice president of Nigeria, Kashim Shetima, to a breakfast meeting where you had
01:46
the political leaders, business leaders, and it was centered around the African
01:53
Continental Free Trade Area. And you can see how central Nigeria is to that, because
01:59
there was talk about the Pan-African payment system, which is
02:06
a larger version of what we already have in Nigeria, which is the interbank settlement
02:15
system, which was created as far back as 1997. And this has more or less
02:28
facilitated the strong drive for fintech, you know, the growth of fintech and, you know,
02:35
because settlement is in real time. So you can see the key role that Nigeria is playing. And
02:41
if you look at the continent also, the Nigerian banks, almost every country you go to in Africa,
02:48
you come across a Zenith, an Axis Bank, a UBA, a GT Bank, and so forth, Dangote,
02:55
Bua, Sahara. So we're actualizing that. And Nigeria is the largest market on the continent.
03:03
And for us, trade, commerce and trade is something that comes natural to us,
03:13
because Nigeria was created out of that. It was created out of the interactions, the trade,
03:22
the trade relations between peoples around the confluence of the rivers Niger and Benue.
03:28
Sure, sure. So you touched on your recent membership as Nigeria as a partner country to
03:34
the BRICS grouping. Why was that important for the country to take that step? And ultimately,
03:42
what will it mean for Nigeria? Well, to begin with, we already have very strong bilateral relations
03:50
with the founding members of BRICS. And you can even see in terms of engagement,
03:59
President Tunuwu has visited Brazil recently, has visited China recently, and the Chinese
04:10
foreign minister, my counterpart Wang Yi, visited Nigeria, met with me, met with President
04:16
Tunuwu at the beginning of the year, just a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago.
04:24
India, before President Tunuwu left for Brazil, for Rio, for the G20 summit,
04:32
Prime Minister Modi visited him in Nigeria. And so it goes. So it's important that we
04:40
place ourselves in a position where when they take collective decisions,
04:48
we're there to benefit, there to be a part of it, but without any of the challenges that
04:57
maybe one may face if one at this point in time is a BRICS member country, full membership. So
05:07
the partnership affords us all the benefits of membership before making that move. And of course,
05:15
our approach has always been that of strategic autonomy. We engage as we see best with regards
05:24
to our national interest. And of course, timing is very important as well. You have to look at
05:28
the temporal side of things. But this announcement about the BRICS partnership has elicited all
05:35
sorts of reactions. Some say, well, what's the point? Why BRICS partnership? Why not full
05:42
membership? You should have been there. They don't realize that there's so many other considerations.
05:49
Nigeria has so many overlapping relationships, and it will do what it deems best for its
05:58
national interest. And remember that the BRICS countries, all of them are members of the G20.
06:06
The founding members. What I also want to understand, so is that, is it a goal eventually
06:11
to become a member? Or right now, is Nigeria happy with being a partner country in the BRICS group?
06:20
For now, we're happy with being a partner. The membership is still a work in progress,
06:26
as is membership of the G20. Let's talk about that, because the G20, obviously quite a
06:32
topical subject for the continent right now, just given the fact that it's coming to the
06:37
continent for the first time, hosted by South Africa, which is the reigning president right
06:44
now of the G20 grouping. The African Union also made headlines during India's tenure,
06:50
obviously, when it became a member of the G20 grouping as well. Why is Nigeria pursuing a path
06:59
of wanting to become a member as well? And is membership through the African Union and perhaps
07:06
representation through South Africa as a continental partner not enough, sir?
07:11
I would say to you, why not? Because Latin America, look at South America,
07:21
Brazil is a member of the G20, Argentina is a member of the G20. Nobody's saying, oh no, it's
07:27
okay, no need for both countries to be members of the G20. Let's instead consider the United
07:38
South American Organization of South American Countries to represent, or Mercosur, or some
07:44
other entity or organization of American states. If you look at Asia, nobody's talking about
07:51
any Asian grouping of countries to represent Asia. So why must it always be Africa that
08:04
is expected to just simply be represented by the African Union? We're not against
08:08
African Union representation. We supported it. We're very pleased with it. But Nigeria
08:15
as the largest country on the continent, Nigeria as arguably the largest economy,
08:25
needs to be represented. Particularly since going into the future, Nigeria is going to be
08:31
also the third largest country in the world. And we have shown we've been consistent
08:37
in terms of speaking up for Africa, in terms of fighting for Africa.
08:44
Nigeria was at the forefront of the fight against racist regimes on the continent.
08:49
We supported South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola to become liberated.
08:59
We made a lot of sacrifices. We currently continue to support other countries through
09:07
different means. We have under my ministry the technical aid corps that sends Nigerian
09:18
professionals, teachers, university lecturers, engineers, doctors for free to African,
09:26
Caribbean and Pacific countries. We're the ones advocating for a global tax reform at the
09:32
United Nations with the support of other African countries. So in terms of advocacy and what we're
09:38
championing and what we seek to champion also, we seek to champion the issue of special drawing
09:46
rights with the International Monetary Fund to fund the energy transition. These are things that
09:53
we have the stature, the strong voice and the experience to champion.
10:04
So also, I mean, in terms of the advocacy that you just described, you also
10:08
touched on points of partnerships and collaborations, which obviously speaks to
10:12
the meetings and the objectives that the annual meetings are trying to achieve. But if I just
10:18
speak about it from your portfolio and in terms of outlook, when you do look at regional
10:23
collaboration or even collaboration with our Western partners, in this current time right now
10:28
where some corners are a little bit concerned about the increase of potential fragmentation,
10:34
particularly between the global north and the global south in the medium term, what is your
10:39
position on that collaboration and where will your focus areas be on strengthening such collaboration
10:45
in this intelligent age? The collaboration between north and south is very important.
10:50
If you take the case of Europe, they've always been, historically, they've always been our
10:55
neighbours. The ties are stronger than we would imagine. So we need that. They are amongst our
11:04
largest trading partners. But we also need that. This is why we need Nigeria to be in G20, to be
11:12
in BRICS, to be in the United Nations Security Council, so that we will be able to address
11:19
some of the challenges in the horizon. Look at some of the regulations that are coming out of
11:25
Europe, deforestation laws, supply chain laws, carbon border adjustment. These are things that
11:33
would serve, if care is not taken, as an impediment to stronger ties, to trade,
11:43
and for both sides to benefit. So we need that discourse. We need
11:52
the natural art of compromise to be actualised. And that can only come about by way of engagement,
12:05
by way of discussion, and at the highest decision-making entities.
12:12
And that's why we need that representation. That was Yusuf Tuga, Nigeria's Minister of
12:18
Foreign Affairs.
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