Nigeria's Foreign Minister speaks to BRICS partnership

Guardian Nigeria

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00:00And Nigeria's foreign affairs minister has been speaking to Nigeria's recent membership

00:05as a BRICS partner, stating that the move remains strategic in its engagement with countries.

00:10Speaking on the sidelines of the 15th World Economic Forum,

00:13Tugge stressed that becoming a BRICS member is still a work in progress. Take a look.

00:20Well, you know, in terms of networking, WEF is second to none. So that's why it's important

00:27for Nigeria to be present, to engage. And we've been doing that. So it's political engagement.

00:36It's, of course, also economic engagement. And especially since we have,

00:45some would say, an ambitious agenda, permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council,

00:54membership of G20. Recently, we announced partnership in BRICS. So we're a BRICS partner now.

01:04And of course, we are in the forefront of the push for a reform of the global financial

01:17architecture. And of course, also the political decision making architecture.

01:22So I imagine, as you say, sir, all the engagements that you've been having so far have been around

01:28those points, as you said, political and economic engagements. What has the reception been to the

01:33key stakeholders that you've been talking to? Very, very good. This morning, I was,

01:40I accompanied the vice president of Nigeria, Kashim Shetima, to a breakfast meeting where you had

01:46the political leaders, business leaders, and it was centered around the African

01:53Continental Free Trade Area. And you can see how central Nigeria is to that, because

01:59there was talk about the Pan-African payment system, which is

02:06a larger version of what we already have in Nigeria, which is the interbank settlement

02:15system, which was created as far back as 1997. And this has more or less

02:28facilitated the strong drive for fintech, you know, the growth of fintech and, you know,

02:35because settlement is in real time. So you can see the key role that Nigeria is playing. And

02:41if you look at the continent also, the Nigerian banks, almost every country you go to in Africa,

02:48you come across a Zenith, an Axis Bank, a UBA, a GT Bank, and so forth, Dangote,

02:55Bua, Sahara. So we're actualizing that. And Nigeria is the largest market on the continent.

03:03And for us, trade, commerce and trade is something that comes natural to us,

03:13because Nigeria was created out of that. It was created out of the interactions, the trade,

03:22the trade relations between peoples around the confluence of the rivers Niger and Benue.

03:28Sure, sure. So you touched on your recent membership as Nigeria as a partner country to

03:34the BRICS grouping. Why was that important for the country to take that step? And ultimately,

03:42what will it mean for Nigeria? Well, to begin with, we already have very strong bilateral relations

03:50with the founding members of BRICS. And you can even see in terms of engagement,

03:59President Tunuwu has visited Brazil recently, has visited China recently, and the Chinese

04:10foreign minister, my counterpart Wang Yi, visited Nigeria, met with me, met with President

04:16Tunuwu at the beginning of the year, just a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago.

04:24India, before President Tunuwu left for Brazil, for Rio, for the G20 summit,

04:32Prime Minister Modi visited him in Nigeria. And so it goes. So it's important that we

04:40place ourselves in a position where when they take collective decisions,

04:48we're there to benefit, there to be a part of it, but without any of the challenges that

04:57maybe one may face if one at this point in time is a BRICS member country, full membership. So

05:07the partnership affords us all the benefits of membership before making that move. And of course,

05:15our approach has always been that of strategic autonomy. We engage as we see best with regards

05:24to our national interest. And of course, timing is very important as well. You have to look at

05:28the temporal side of things. But this announcement about the BRICS partnership has elicited all

05:35sorts of reactions. Some say, well, what's the point? Why BRICS partnership? Why not full

05:42membership? You should have been there. They don't realize that there's so many other considerations.

05:49Nigeria has so many overlapping relationships, and it will do what it deems best for its

05:58national interest. And remember that the BRICS countries, all of them are members of the G20.

06:06The founding members. What I also want to understand, so is that, is it a goal eventually

06:11to become a member? Or right now, is Nigeria happy with being a partner country in the BRICS group?

06:20For now, we're happy with being a partner. The membership is still a work in progress,

06:26as is membership of the G20. Let's talk about that, because the G20, obviously quite a

06:32topical subject for the continent right now, just given the fact that it's coming to the

06:37continent for the first time, hosted by South Africa, which is the reigning president right

06:44now of the G20 grouping. The African Union also made headlines during India's tenure,

06:50obviously, when it became a member of the G20 grouping as well. Why is Nigeria pursuing a path

06:59of wanting to become a member as well? And is membership through the African Union and perhaps

07:06representation through South Africa as a continental partner not enough, sir?

07:11I would say to you, why not? Because Latin America, look at South America,

07:21Brazil is a member of the G20, Argentina is a member of the G20. Nobody's saying, oh no, it's

07:27okay, no need for both countries to be members of the G20. Let's instead consider the United

07:38South American Organization of South American Countries to represent, or Mercosur, or some

07:44other entity or organization of American states. If you look at Asia, nobody's talking about

07:51any Asian grouping of countries to represent Asia. So why must it always be Africa that

08:04is expected to just simply be represented by the African Union? We're not against

08:08African Union representation. We supported it. We're very pleased with it. But Nigeria

08:15as the largest country on the continent, Nigeria as arguably the largest economy,

08:25needs to be represented. Particularly since going into the future, Nigeria is going to be

08:31also the third largest country in the world. And we have shown we've been consistent

08:37in terms of speaking up for Africa, in terms of fighting for Africa.

08:44Nigeria was at the forefront of the fight against racist regimes on the continent.

08:49We supported South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola to become liberated.

08:59We made a lot of sacrifices. We currently continue to support other countries through

09:07different means. We have under my ministry the technical aid corps that sends Nigerian

09:18professionals, teachers, university lecturers, engineers, doctors for free to African,

09:26Caribbean and Pacific countries. We're the ones advocating for a global tax reform at the

09:32United Nations with the support of other African countries. So in terms of advocacy and what we're

09:38championing and what we seek to champion also, we seek to champion the issue of special drawing

09:46rights with the International Monetary Fund to fund the energy transition. These are things that

09:53we have the stature, the strong voice and the experience to champion.

10:04So also, I mean, in terms of the advocacy that you just described, you also

10:08touched on points of partnerships and collaborations, which obviously speaks to

10:12the meetings and the objectives that the annual meetings are trying to achieve. But if I just

10:18speak about it from your portfolio and in terms of outlook, when you do look at regional

10:23collaboration or even collaboration with our Western partners, in this current time right now

10:28where some corners are a little bit concerned about the increase of potential fragmentation,

10:34particularly between the global north and the global south in the medium term, what is your

10:39position on that collaboration and where will your focus areas be on strengthening such collaboration

10:45in this intelligent age? The collaboration between north and south is very important.

10:50If you take the case of Europe, they've always been, historically, they've always been our

10:55neighbours. The ties are stronger than we would imagine. So we need that. They are amongst our

11:04largest trading partners. But we also need that. This is why we need Nigeria to be in G20, to be

11:12in BRICS, to be in the United Nations Security Council, so that we will be able to address

11:19some of the challenges in the horizon. Look at some of the regulations that are coming out of

11:25Europe, deforestation laws, supply chain laws, carbon border adjustment. These are things that

11:33would serve, if care is not taken, as an impediment to stronger ties, to trade,

11:43and for both sides to benefit. So we need that discourse. We need

11:52the natural art of compromise to be actualised. And that can only come about by way of engagement,

12:05by way of discussion, and at the highest decision-making entities.

12:12And that's why we need that representation. That was Yusuf Tuga, Nigeria's Minister of

12:18Foreign Affairs.

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