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Tag: Geoffery Onyeama

  • Assault video: How Onyeama, Envoy to Togo, Adesina saved Nigerian passengers

    Assault video: How Onyeama, Envoy to Togo, Adesina saved Nigerian passengers

    Nigerians seen being maltreated at the Gnassingbe Eyadema International Airport, Lome on Saturday in a viral video have been successfully evacuated to the country.

    It was learnt that both the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Geofrey Onyeama, and the Ambassador to Togo, Debo Adesina, had immediately moved in on Saturday after getting wind of the incident where some of the Nigerian passengers were shown being assaulted by airport security operatives.

    It was gathered that the Nigerian passengers aboard the Ethiopian Airline from New York got to Lome only to be informed that their connecting flight to Nigeria through ASky Airline was full.

    This infuriated the Nigerian passengers, leading to a protest within the airport and for which some of the Nigerians were shackled and manhandled.

    In the viral video, some people were seen with their hands tied to their backs while uniformed men believed to be Togolese airport securitymen were seen assaulting a lady who was on the floor.

    A man could be heard screaming “This is bad, this is bad.”

    It was gathered that Adesina, who was said to have briefed the minister, personally went to the airport on hearing the news of the development.

    It was learnt that he, alongside the boss of the country’s civil aviation company, one Colonel Dokisime Gnama Latta, immediately worked out an arrangement for two flights to evacuate all of the passengers Saturday night.

    ASky Airline, which is said to be a strategic partner of the Ethiopian Airline has been facing challenges in the last three weeks due to traffic volume.

    It was learnt that the same airline had almost aborted a trip by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, last week when he was on his way to Kenya from The Gambia where he went for election monitoring.

  • Why many countries are rejecting Made-in-Nigeria goods – Foreign Affairs Minister

    Why many countries are rejecting Made-in-Nigeria goods – Foreign Affairs Minister

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama on Saturday lamented the rejection of Nigerian exports by other countries.

    Onyeama was speaking at a meeting in Abuja with the Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Olusegun Awolowo.

    According to the Minister, the quality of products, especially agricultural products, do not meet the export standards of many countries.

    “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a comparative and unique advantage to be physically present in over a 100 countries in the world,” he said.

    “Now this represents truly a unique opportunity to leverage on that presence to export and trade our goods.

    “There are a number of countries around the world not blessed with the natural resources that we have but yet, through trade, have transformed their societies and have become major economic powers.

    “In engaging with a number of countries, we have seen that, especially in the agriculture sector, the phytosanitary aspect is very important.

    “We are being denied market access into a lot of countries because of the quality of the products. And this is costing us huge resources. So I think that your agency (NEPC) also has a lot of work to do.”

    Onyeama added the Federal Government will focus on strengthening economic diplomacy in ensuring Nigeria benefits from countries it has formal relationships with.

    On his part, NEPC Awolowo expressed confidence that the Federal Government’s efforts will lead to the agency’s realisation of $30 billion from non-oil export by 2025.

  • Nigeria engages China on COVID-19 vaccine

    Nigeria engages China on COVID-19 vaccine

    The Federal Government says it has opened talks with the Peoples Republic of China to have access to COVID-19 vaccines for Nigeria.

    Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffery Onyeama, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja while briefing newsmen shortly after a bilateral meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi.

    Yi is in Nigeria on a working visit.

    Onyeama recalled that China was of immense assistance to Nigeria at the advent of the pandemic, noting that the donation of protective equipment greatly affected the nation in the fight against COVID-19.

    The minister said that at this point when countries were discovering vaccines and China being one of them, Nigeria was engaging the country in the area of access to the vaccine.

    “We have received a lot of support from China in the area of personal protective equipment that they were very quick to provide us with and of course, with the vaccine discoveries now,

    “China is also one of those countries that have been able to discover vaccines for COVID-19, so we are also engaging with China to also help with regards to access to vaccines for our people,” he said.

    According to Onyeama, the relationship between both countries has dated 50 years, adding that both countries have many areas of cooperation to celebrate.

    “We also realised that in 2021, we would be celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations between Nigeria and the Peoples Republic of China,” he said.

    Giving insights into some of the deliberations during the closed door meeting, Onyeama said that he and his counterpart looked at the trade relations between the two countries and areas that could be improved.

    He said that they also discussed health issues and the global pandemic.

    “In the area of fostering relations, both countries are now considering having a direct flight from Nigeria to China.

    “We want to establish direct air link with China. We hope that very soon, a Nigerian carrier would be carrying out scheduled flights to China in the not too distant future,” he said.