ABUJA – Evidence that the election of the president-Elect, General Mohammadu Buhari has received universal acceptance came on Tuesday when a letter of invitation to a meeting with the group 7 (G7) countries in Europe and America was handed to him by the German Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Michael Zenner.
Zenner who was at the Defence House in Abuja to felicitate with Buhari on his electoral victory told Journalists after a closed door meeting with the president-elect that the letter of invitation was officially written and signed by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel to Buhari.
In the same vein, the spokesman of the Buhari presidential campaign organization, Mallam Garba Shehu confirmed the receipt of the letter, saying that the meeting would hold between 8 and 9 of May.
The group 7 otherwise called G7 are the most economically and politically influential countries of the world.
Speaking to Journalists, Zenner said, “I am here to congratulate the President-Elect, Gen. Buhari on his election and handed over to him the letter from the German Chancellor inviting him to Germany.They included: Germany, Japan, Canada, USA, France, Italy and Great Britain.
“We have a very deep and intense relationship with Nigeria and there are lot of areas where we can deepen our relation and develop them further such as in the area of economy, energy among others.
“We have a bi-national commission with Nigeria and we are one of the countries with which Nigeria has this Bi-National Commission and it covers the whole range of political, economic and security areas. There are many areas in which we can move further and deepen our very close cooperation”.
Ambassadors of France, Canada visit President-Elect.
Also yesterday, the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Denys Gauer and his Canadian counter-part, Mr. Perry John Calderwood paid visits to Buhari.
According Gauer, bilateral talks between Nigeria and France dominated the interactions he had with Buhari.
He said: “As the French Ambassador, I came to congratulate the President elect for his brilliant achievement. His election is an enormous achievement for Nigeria and the democratic development of Nigeria.
“The people of Nigeria has expressed its confidence in the President elect. The challenges of Nigeria are enomous and I have come to wish him success.
“We also held a small talk about our bilateral relations. As you know, our relationship has developed quite well in recent years. In the economic field, Nigeria is already the first commercial partners of France in Africa.
“We have a strong presence of French companies in Nigeria and we are encouraging them to come more to Nigeria to invest here and establish partnership with Nigerian companies.
“We also have the French Development Agency that is present here and ready to contribute to development projects.
“Our relationship also developed in the area of security. Boko Haram has become a major threat not only to Nigeria, but to neighbouring countries.
“Since the special summit in Paris in May last year, France has worked a lot to perfect cooperation and collaboration among countries in the region and also work with the Nigerian Armed Forces especially in exchange of information and to contribute to the common fight against the terrorist threat.
“I expressed our willingness to continue in the same direction, with the same objective to eliminate that terrorist threat in Nigeria and in the region. I also passed a copy of the letter from the French president in which he invited him to France as soon as it will be possible for him”.
The ambassador also told Journalists that there was effort by the country to help Nigeria stamp Boko haram insurgency in the country.
“Well, there was support for Nigeria because we took the initiative to organise in Paris a regional submit that brought in the President of Nigeria and all the Presidents of the neigbouring countries. Precisely to bring them together and to better facilitate collaboration among them in the common fight against Boko Haram.
“Since then, may be it has not been perfect but nevertheless a great progress has been achieved and as you can see it brought a lot of result on the ground but we are still pushing more for the cooperation because it cannot be done by one country. We also established a bilateral cooperation with the Nigerian Armed forces specially in terms of exchange of information of intelligence. So, we have a lot of cooperation”, he said.
For Canadian High Commissioner, Calderwood, Nigeria and Canada are great economic partners who would hence forth strengthen their economic ties
“Canada view Nigeria as an important partner. Canada and Nigeria already has significant economic ties as well as trade and investment ties. We believe that it is possible to increase these ties to include areas such as agriculture, mining, renewable energy, infrastructure where Canadian companies have great expertise.
“We are very pleased to see that more and more Canadian companies are looking into new opportunities in Nigeria. I am also delighted that we have a significant development programme Nigeria focused on health and economic development.
“On the health side, we focus on maternal and newborn health and the eradication of polio. On the economic side, we focus on employment generation. We are also very active in working with Nigeria to promote security in Nigeria, Africa and globally as well as promote the principles of good governance and human right around the world”, Calderwood said.
Meanwhile, the president elect also played host to the Igbo Delegate Assembly, IDA, the umbrella body of all Igbo living in the 19 northern states and Abuja who came to congratulate him on his election as the president-elect of Nigeria.”
