Ademola Oshodi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Protocol is on the special delegation of Bola Tinubu’s two-day State visit to Brazil. He recently spoke on national television about the impact of the diplomatic engagement and its potential huge impact on Nigeria’s agricultural sector. NewsQuest brings the excerpts;
It’s been a long trip for the President. From Yokohama to Los Angeles, and to Brazil. All of these are assumed to be for the business of Nigeria. Isn’t it?
Nigeria has never been more open for business than this time. This is an administration that has so much, you know, I would say so much audacity, boldness, able to articulate its position on reforms. So, you don’t just see domestic reforms that try to reshape our Nigerian economy, but there’s also a huge attention on Foreign Affairs.
The President has been circumventing the globe, basically, to ensure that his dramatic reforms are in place. And he can do that by ensuring he closes deals with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, the Japanese Development Agency with the TICAD conference, which just concluded, and also with other international organizations, getting loans and facilities.
It is a great time for Nigerian businesses. It’s a great time for investments in Nigeria. We can see the huge foreign reserves of the country and the country being in a more stable position than it has been for a while. This is how economic diplomacy should be done. And the President is right in the forward position to ensure that we close deals, and ensure that he focuses on pushing for democratic values and institutions in Africa, especially in West Africa, with all the coups and everything.
Also pushing issues of demography, ensuring that youth policies are put in place. The investment coming from Japan is a big part of youth-focused foreign policy. And there is also, of course, in the diaspora, the diaspora community, which the President has always taken very seriously. They are bringing in a lot of money into Nigeria, over N20 billion per year.
So, this is a tremendous opportunity being opened up in our country. Development encompasses everything, ensuring that we get the right facilities, that we get the right opportunities, and ensure that we have the confidence of international investors to come and put their money into the country, creating jobs, and also pushing for a United Nations seat, a very key development.
How do you summarize President Bola Tinubu’s trip to Brazil? What would you say is the one single most important agenda item on his trip to Brazil?
One word, if I could use it, it’s just agriculture or agrobusiness. That is so impactful. The Presidents of Nigeria and Brazil have this chemistry together. You see them hugging. They are a part of BRICS, and Nigeria has been a partner country. G20, Nigeria is seeking interest in that organization, or Brazilian organizations. So, it’s important that we see what the chemistry they have, are bringing in for Nigeria. We have huge agricultural things coming in from Brazil. We have investors, especially in livestock.
Brazil is a big part of, if you say, agriculture in the world. If you say the farmland of the world, they have a tremendous amount of agricultural export. Their expertise is what Nigeria needs. We need their investments also in all facets of agriculture.
I think 10,000 tractors are coming into Nigeria for agricultural implements. So, it is huge, because the Nigerian economy, 40% of it, is agriculture. A lot of Nigerians are doing very simple farming in their villages, in their towns, and it’s a huge part of the inflation issue.
So, if we have agriculture down, that is a great opportunity to better bring down inflation, provide more employment for Nigerians, and also bring more stability in the country. We have all these issues of the herders/farmers clashes. We have the opportunity to ensure that every sector of that agricultural ecosystem is actually well furnished with foreign solar expertise and with machinery.
When the President was about to leave the country, a lot of Nigerians were not happy. The opposition criticized the President for what they described as excessive foreign trips, and they said that the President should cancel some of these trips.
I don’t even think he is traveling enough to be honest. The impact of what his trips have done for Nigeria, for the Nigerian economy, for security issues around the bandits and the insurgents, around the north, issues in West Africa, especially with the coups and the instability in the Sahel region, and ensuring that we have this economic confidence, we have Western countries, people now coming back to Nigeria for medical tourism.
We have diasporas coming in to invest. We have countries around the world that we never really thought of – Japan, India, and they are investing seriously in Nigeria. I really don’t think he is traveling enough. I would like to see him move around more and ensure we close more deals. It’s very important. It’s for your livelihood, it is for our security.
Are you saying that this can only be achieved if the President travels? What if there were COVID and people could not travel?
Well, if there were COVID, I guess we would adjust to that, but we see the impact. We see what the President is achieving by this traveling. He is not just traveling like a normal summit diplomacy that we have seen in the past. This is economic diplomacy. He is meeting with people who are non-traditional countries that would usually not do business with Nigeria. We are opening up opportunities with Brazil.
For goodness’ sake, Brazil. Economic opportunities within Africa, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement is blossoming because also see the energy towards Nigerians pushing in the BRICS and in the G20, all to open up avenues and boost our profile.
I really wish that we had more, I would say more impactful diplomacy than we have had before President Tinubu came in. I really believe that would have taken us to a different trajectory than what we are experiencing right now.
Tell me, I understand that the President signed an MoU today. What is this MoU about?
Well it is to expand our agricultural base and to ensure we also have the right partnership between Nigeria and Brazil, and to ensure there is open communication culturally between the two countries. It’s quite expensive, but the most important aspect of the President’s trips, as you probably could see with his bold domestic reform, is the economy. It is the economy.
Can you be specific? What aspect of agriculture?
Ans: The most tangible thing right now is the livestock. There is over $2.5 billion from the Brazilian economy, with Brazilian businessmen investing in Nigeria. They are bringing in their expertise, their tractors coming in the tens of thousands. We also have issues of crop technology, the technology of how crops are grown, to ensure the right preservation for the consumer. This would ensure that number one- investment is coming, employment is achieved, and inflation is also reduced.
What are the timelines for these agreements?
Ans: The conference is still ongoing. It is a two-day State visit. Things have not been totally signed off. There could be more. But I can tell you right now that the impacts of the MoUs you referred to, are going to be throughout the value chain of the agricultural sector. Straight from the farms to processing. All the way to the packaging. So it is going to be scattered around the north, Kebbi, Plateau Nassarawa State, and the processing plants in Edo, Lagos, and other parts of the country where the infrastructure is available. So it is an ongoing thing, and we see that the President’s policy has always been there, focused on the agricultural sector.
