Still on Buhari’s visit to China

Fortunately, let me begin by congratulating Nigerians and indeed our amiable and globally respected President Muhammadu Buhari, for a successful outing at the 7th edition of the Forum On China - Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that took place between Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th September 2018 in Beijin China. More fortunate for Nigeria is the fact that our President was among the few African Leaders that spoke at the all-important forum on his capacity as ECOWAS Chair.

The major takeaways from the just concluded forum in Beijin include but not limited to the following:The mouthwatering $60 billion USD Africa Investment Intervention Fund announced by the Chinese President Xi Jinpin, which seeks to provide interest free loans, aid, grants and investment financing to stimulate Africa’s development in the next three years; The commitment by the Peoples’ Republic of China towards the overall development of the African continent under its ongoing Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), currently regarded the most ambitious economic development programme the World has ever seen; and the intention of the Chinese Government to open a China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in China among others.

On his own part, President Muhammadu Buhari has made a good case for Nigeria, which includes the following:- The call for China to assist Nigeria towards the actualization of the long awaited Mambila Hydropower Project which was abandoned close to forty (40) years ago, inspite of its enormous socioeconomic significance to the country; The collective desire to increase volume of trade between China and Nigeria from $7.6 billion USD to more than $10 billion USD in the next few years among others.

Nigeria occupies a vantage position to maximize the benefits of its largest economy in Africa to woo the world to partner with the continent to be able to strengthen the new positive global socio-economic trajectory towards the actualization of a real and sustainable African development. And I have no doubt in my mind that this task is achievable in no distant future given the overwhelming confidence that prevailed throughout the two-day summit in Beijin.

Unfortunately though, the irreconcilable fact is that, even when President Buhari was busy making beautiful offerings for business and economic collaboration with China, Mr. President has forgotten to carry along with him the real stakeholders that matter in all that transpired at the China-Africa Forum i.e. the leadership of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) the umbrella body of the entire private sector in the country that the Chinese business community would have loved to meet and share more valuable information and lay together a broader platform of engagement, and go on to sign more business deals as against the very few ones that was signed as the all-important summit lasted.

The whole essence of the founding of FOCAC since the year 2000 was about the facilitation of the needed development in trade, investment and general socio-economic advancement between Africa and China. And, to this extent I hereby emphasized that NACCIMA is unarguably the major stakeholder in the whole issue surrounding Nigerians participation in the forum. Therefore the earlier, the Nigerian government come to terms with this reality, the better for the successful implementation of both the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (NERGP) and the overall NigeriaChina strategic bilateral partnership going forward.

In the final analysis, it rather appears that someone somewhere is not really doing his job properly, otherwise there must be somebody whose brief includes mobilizing those that really matter in the trip to China. It mustn’t have been the fault of Mr. President.

Interestingly, whenever any president embarks on any business trip to Nigeria, such leaders used to carry along with them their business community under the leadership of their business forums equivalent to NACCIMA. It is therefore behooves on our President to take a queue to be able to succeed in entrenching a private sector led economy in the country.

Habu A. Jajere is the President Bauchi State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (BACCIMA).