DIRECTOR of Oxfam Nigeria, Dr. Chidi Aniagolu-Okoye is urging Nigeria to use the impending visit of United States Secretary of State, Ms. Hillary Clinton to build a strategic relationship with the United States.
Aniagolu-Okoye said that Nigeria could further work out enhanced international trade relations with U.S. as a strategy for closer ties.
She said on Tuesday in Abuja that Nigeria should do away with its current donor dependent status during Clinton’s visit.
“America has a lot to offer, but this time around, it must not be Nigeria coming cap in hand as it does all the time begging, instead it must be a strategic relationship,’’ she stressed.
Aniagolu-Okoye said that it was an established fact that Nigeria had long standing bilateral relations with America in so many areas.
However, Aniagolu-Okoye, said there was need to create an environment of mutual trade relations and cooperation that would allow Nigerian goods to gain easy access to America.
She said that this would go a long way to encouraging the Nigerian private sector to improve on the quality of their goods in the competitive international markets.
The country director said that the issue of security was becoming the major global focus and Nigeria should see it as one of the areas of its priority.
She said that the U.S. should give special attention to Nigeria’s security problem to guard against its spill over to America and elsewhere.
“This has become so imperative because the world is getting smaller and what affect one country will definitely affects the others.
“When the Al-Oaeda started its terrorism in the Middle-East, we never thought this would happen to us in Nigeria,’’ she said.
Aniagolu-Okoye said that even though there was democratic government in Nigeria, democracy had not taken its root in Nigeria, therefore, the U.S. needed to focus on this.
“This has become essential because Nigeria has adopted the American democratic system of government, therefore, America should assist Nigeria to build its democratic institutions.’’
The Country Director of Action Aid, Dr Hussain Abdul, noted that the visit of Hillary Clinton was just another American diplomatic visit to Nigeria.
He said that there was no doubt that the U.S. was more powerful, influential and economically buoyant than Nigeria, naturally, there must be a symbiotic relationship.
Abdul, therefore, warned that Nigeria must not present a dependency position to the visiting Secretary of State.
“You depend on me and I depend on you, Nigeria has a lot to offer.
“Therefore, we should actually interface, and work out what Nigeria can gain from America throughout the diplomatic relationship and what America can gain from Nigerian,” Abdul said.
The National Chairman of National Democratic Party, Mr Chudi Chukwuani, said the visit of U. S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, is expected to center on economic development of both countries.
Chukwuani said in Abuja on Tuesday that the visit of Clinton to Malawi centered on some identified development projects in Malawi.
“We hope that her visit to Nigeria will assist to address some of its identified development projects as it has been done in Malawi.
In Malawi, the U.S. expressed its readiness to give special assistance to Malawi without any string attached.
Chukwuani urged Nigeria to seek the assistance of U.S. in the areas of health, education, roads, water, and electricity among others.
He urged the Federal Government to articulate some of the areas that needed urgent attention such as the security situation in the country.