President Muhammadu Buhari says the country is ‘nervously monitoring’ the proceedings of Brexit.
The president made this statement on Wednesday when Theresa May, British prime minister, paid him a visit in the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock, Abuja.
In his remarks, Buhari said Nigeria
and the United Kingdom will continue to enhance their cooperation in tackling
corruption and reducing poverty.
“Madam Theresa, I welcome you
most sincerely to Nigeria and I am very grateful to the British government
under your leadership for the help you are giving us in the area of security,”
he said.
“I also thank you very much for
the improvement in trade relationship between us since you assumed office.
“We are nervously watching
developments about Brexit because we know that relationship has been on since
1938 and people are here looking at the opportunities in education, businesses
and so on and I assure you that we will take the necessary steps to improve on
the trade relationship between our two countries.”
On her part, May said the UK
needs to seek more economic ties to Nigeria after exiting the European Union.
“As you have said, we already
have very good cooperation between the UK and Nigeria which include education,
defence, security and trade relations,” she said.
“We are ready to cooperate
together on global and regional issues; to strengthen that cooperation and
partnership, I have with me a business delegation, as we look to enhance our
ties in future and explore more trading opportunities.
“We will also be looking to work
together to step up efforts against security threats from Boko Haram, human
trafficking and the likes. And of course, also cooperate to fight corruption
and lifting people out of poverty.
“I am pleased that I am going to
visit Lagos as well because as far as our partnership is working, we are doing
well in Nigeria. We look forward to enhancing this relationship in the future.”
Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of
foreign affairs, said the defence and security pact will not be limited to the
military.
“Coming out of the European
Union, they feel freer now to engage with countries on a bilateral level and
build up trade relations with those countries,” he said referring to the
Economic Development Forum
“For us, this also fits into our
Economic Recovery and Growth Plan where Mr President has put forward a roadmap
that is really transforming this country. So this partnership is a framework
that is very key to our Economic Growth and Development Plan.”
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