PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday said Nigeria would remain the giant of Africa through its role and commitment to conflict resolution in the continent.
Jonathan spoke at the opening of the 3rd Nigeria Investment Summit, jointly organized by the Nigerian Mission to the UN and the African Business Roundtable, New York.
The president said Nigeria’s long-standing commitment to the promotion of issues of particular concern to Africa had been widely acknowledged.
He said the country had equally stood firm and played critical roles in all the recent developments in Africa.
Jonathan said Nigeria would not fail as a result of his administration’s resolve to sanitise the business sector, the same way it did to the political process when he assumed office as Commander-in Chief.
He urged investors in Nigeria to work hard to create job opportunities for the people.
“I have a policy and it is that for a nation to change or develop, you cannot do everything because if you do so, you will not go anywhere as a result of the lack of resources to do it.
“You only have to pick some vital things and do them and by so doing, you will make a complete change, “ the president said.
Jonathan, however, assured foreign investors who wished to do business in Nigeria that government was fully committed to creating an enabling environment for them.
The president said that Nigerians should have confidence in the people they elected into public offices to enable the country to move forward.
“Everybody cannot be in government at the same time but what we do is carry everybody along.
“We always call on people and have dialogue with them whenever issues arise so as to move the country forward.
“We believe that this will boost our economy because we really need to work together,“ he said.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that Nigeria was on its way up and that if the country was on its way up, the entire Africa was also on its way up.
Blair urged foreign investors to use their knowledge and investment to help Nigeria in the areas of education and infrastructure development.
“If these sectors are reformed and changed, Nigeria will fully come up to meet MDGs target,” he said.
Blair also urged investors to support positive and economic changes in Nigeria so that the country could get out of the challenges it was currently facing.
He added that Nigeria would not fail economically because public investment opportunity in Nigeria and Africa had risen to a very commendable level.
The former prime minister said that he envisaged a new generation of people and leaders in business and politics coming together to develop Nigeria.
Also former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice commended Nigeria for organising the investment summit in America.
She said that such an event would require expectations that things were going to turn around in Nigeria and the entire world.
Rice said that it was evident that the Federal Government was trying to do a lot of important things that would make the country achieve its objectives in the global economy.
She explained that the U.S. understood the challenges that people of Africa were facing, which had prevented the people from enjoying democratic processes.
“It is not the duty of the workers to make this work but the duty of the business community as well as the international community.
“There is a responsibility for the government to ensure that both local and foreign companies start interacting so as to get the desired economic results,“ she said.
The PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, said Nigeria would not fail because the African Business Roundtable was ready to help the country look attractive to foreign investors that would come to do businesses.
Tukur who is also the President of the African Business Roundtable, assured foreign investors that Nigeria was safe to do business in spite of the security challenges.
- NAN