Abuja — Nigeria and Germany have restated the need for them to work closely for the interest of their peoples.

This was the main thrust of an interactive session organised by agencies of the two countries last week in Abuja.

The event which was put up by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) evaluated the existing relationship between both countries with a view to fashioning out a better way of improving on it.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the two day event, they jointly agreed that both nations have a long history of political and economic relations which were strengthened in 1999 when Nigeria returned to multi-party democracy after military rule.

According to the communiqué, the German Federal Foreign Affairs paid a state visit to Nigeria where the Bilateral Investment Treaty was ratified."2008 saw the signing of the German-Nigerian Energy Partnership and the first bilateral Business Forum held inFrankfurt. In November 2008, Abuja will host the fourth Africa Forum of German President, Horst Köhler's initiative Partnership with Africa which will be followed by his official state visit to Nigeria."The meeting brought together researchers, politicians and foreign policy experts to analyse and discuss the past, present and future of Nigerian-German relations and to develop recommendations for intensifying and deepening bilateral relations".

However, the forum noted that despite recent high-level visits, bilateral governmental relations do not seem to be of the highest priority for either party. Germany's engagement in Nigeria is largely channeled through multilateral institutions, most importantly the European Union (EU), and hence not very visible.

On both sides, bilateral interests are not yet well defined and country strategies towards the other country have not yet been developed.

To redress this, it was agreed Nigeria and Germany should work towards reform of global governance institutions to make them more efficient and more representative.

Also, both Germany and Nigeria expressed their commitment to the democratisation process in Africa, as illustrated in their commitment to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

However, due to the controversial elections in 2007, the problem of corruption and the conflict in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's credibility and ability to lead other African nations are challenged.