allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Yar'Adua - G-8 Invitation a Great Opportunity (Page 1 of 2)

President-elect, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has described the invitation extended to him to attend the G-8 meeting in Germany in June as a great opportunity for the country.

He spoke in Abuja when the Ambassador of Germany to Nigeria and the acting President of the European Union (EU), Joachim Chri-stoph Schemiller paid him a solidarity visit to formally invite him to attend the meeting in June.

Yar'Adua also confirmed to the German envoy that he would attend the meeting in person while assuring of his intention to improve relations between Nigeria and Germany as well as the EU.

Earlier, the German envoy had congratulated and wished him a successful tenure as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Also yesterday, Reuters news agency reported that Germany is expecting Yar'Adua to attend the June summit of the G8 despite international misgivings about the election which handed him power.

A German government spokesman was quoted to have said it had continued the tradition of inviting Nigeria, among other African countries, to the high profile meeting on June 6-8.

Other African countries to be represented at the summit in the Baltic Sea resort of Heilige-ndamm include Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, South Africa and Ghana. They include founding members of the New Partn-erships for Africa's Develo-pment (NEPAD).

"We expect the new president of Nigeria to be there," said a spokesman for the German government, noting the invitations were issued before the Nigerian poll which drew sharp criticism from monitors. The vote had been billed as the first fully democratic transition in a country scarred by decades of military dictatorship.

The report noted that Yar'Adua's participation would, however, give him credibility both internationally and at home.

Germany has made it a priority of its G8 presidency to focus on tackling poverty in Africa and has vowed to ensure rich countries keep promises they made to boost aid spending at a 2005 G8 summit in Scotland.

Leaders from African countries will join G8 leaders on the final day of the summit, said the government spokesman.

THISDAY had exclusively reported yesterday that In what could pass as a growing endorsement of President-elect Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who assumes Presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations in January, has invited the President-elect, with five other African Heads of State to the Annual Summit of the G8 holding between June 6 - 8, 2007 in Heiligendamm, Germany.

Meanwhile, Yar'Adua has described the Presidential candidates of other political parties that contested the April 21 Presidential elections with him as partners in progress and not opponents. According to him, the real opponents of the nation are poverty and under development.

Yar'Adua, while speaking when the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence, Sunday Makinde paid him a courtesy visit at the Aguda House, also reiterated his call on those who contested elections against him to join hands to move Nigeria forward, as the country cannot afford the luxury of time wasting.

According to the President-elect, "I have extended hands of friendship and fellowship to all those who contested the elections against me. They are not my opponents. They are our partners. Our only opponents are poverty and under development.

"We need a lot of hard work, we cannot afford to waste time. We have little time to transform Nigeria to a developed nation. There are lots of works to be done to develop the economy, to provide employment and a dignified life for Nigerians," he told the Methodist Prelate.

Yar'Adua, who kept repeating that there is no time to waste, said that he would take time to reach out "to the major political parties to help in accomplishing the task of moving Nigeria ahead. We have a mission to accomplish. Our only opponent is poverty and underdevelopment.

"Now we need to cooperate after which, we can talk of politics of opposition, but at the moment, we are all partners and not opponents."

Makinde, the leader of the Methodist five-man delegation, told Yar'Adua that they came to congratulate him on his election as President and to advise him.

He particularly warned him to beware of sycophants, "who are parading themselves within the PDP and cultivate the friendship of those who will tell him the truth", while asking him not to be afraid, but courageous, as he is the choice of God to Nigeria at this crucial moment.

The clergy urged Yar'Adua to open and stretch his hands of friendship to all those that contested against him, bearing in mind that the famous maxim of "no victor no vanquished."

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