President Bola Tinubu has expressed the readiness of his government to change the narrative about Nigeria's weak and crawling economy and transform governance in the country.
Tinubu made the assertion yesterday during bilateral talks with German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and his entourage at State House, Abuja.
According to the president, "Nigeria is still crawling, but we are determined to change the narrative and bring about a transformative government in the country.
"You are very welcome with your delegation to partner with in terms of education, power, mineral resources and all the other opportunities. We have a long way to bring about security of our people."
Before addressing a joint press conference, Tinubu and Scholz engaged in three separate meetings, including bilateral political discussions and a government-to-business roundtable.
During the political dialogue, Tinubu called for improved cooperation with the German government in security, natural resources, education, and democracy, among others.
He assured Scholz that Nigeria, which is the largest economy on the African continent, was ready to partner with Germany, which occupies same position in Europe.
The Nigerian president told Scholz and his entourage, "Our economic team and members of the group are all here, ready to partner with you, with Germany as the largest economy in Europe, and the largest economy in Africa is Nigeria, you know that.
"We are blessed with good environment, weather, and blessed in terms of mineral resources.
"Our hydrocarbon industry is still fledging environmentally while we are moving towards the transition energy source.
"I know Germany has advanced a lot in protecting the environment and modernising energy to meet the 21st century needs, both of the world and Europe, in particular."
Tinubu expressed the preparedness of his government to take Nigeria's development to the next level, especially as the issues that could have potentially distracted him (poll litigation) had been recently resolved by the Supreme Court.
He stated, "It is a profound pleasure for me to welcome my friend, Olaf Scholz, to Nigeria. It is a joy to see you here at this particular period of time.
"It is just about a few days ago that the Supreme Court of Federal Republic of Nigeria had a final say on our electoral exercise.
"The distraction is over. This gives us more time to focus on governance for the people and moving Nigeria forward for economic opportunities and prosperity that will defend democracy.
"In our last tete-a-tete, you made a promise that you will be visiting Nigeria and, thank you and your delegation for keeping that promise. It is an honour for me to see you here."
Speaking at the Government-to-Business Roundtable, the president disclosed that his administration was conversant with the characteristics of a typical business environment, hence, the series of reforms and policy readjustments the country had seen in recent times.
e said because his government was conscious of the fact that investments hardly did well in an environment of delay and conflict, much had been put in place, including tax reforms, to free the system of multiple taxation and ensure foreign investments were preserved and returns multiplied.
Tinubu said, "Nigeria has gone through a lot of reforms, yet, we cannot be 100 per cent sure everything goes smoothly. Some of you might not be here while we were discussing the rule of law, I know...for businesses, particularly investors, because I've been in that environment before, I am from that constituency.
"I was once a treasurer, ExxonMobil in Nigeria, so I can understand the pain and delays of investment, I can understand the pain and delays of conflict in any business partnership and you cannot remove conflicts from the process, but you can minimise it. But how well the investor's investment is protected is very clearly very important.
"Investment is cowardly, it doesn't like delays and conflicts, it will run away, we understand that. Equally, time management, to promote efficiency and smooth operation under the rule of law is crucially important.
"We are reforming our economic and business environment to promote efficiency. You might have read or been aware that we have removed oil subsidy, we're going through tax reforms to eliminate double taxation and give you better returns on investments, and there are principles that will ensure your investment grows well and is protected.
"We definitely welcome you to the collaboration, we're happy this is happening to us. I believe that my friend will add more to the value of Nigeria's environment.
"We have discussed that, I've made a commitment to you that we'll promote the efficiency, ease-of-doing-business and remove all conflict areas that might be possible immediately."
Answering a question on the federal government's alleged refusal to readmit over 12,000 Nigerians, who were unable to meet Germany's asylum provisions and risked deportation, Tinubu said such individuals were welcome back home. He, however, disclosed that both countries were working on regularising the stay of those who were economic refugees, according to the immigration laws of the two countries.
According to him, "We had a very deep discussion on this and you have to separate the economic refugees from real refugees. We have a programme to work in partnership to really ensure normal migration and deepen the relationship in that area. I'm not making any demands, if they are Nigerian citizens, they are Nigerian citizens, and they are welcome back home. Nothing should send them away.
"We are ready to enter into partnership to improve the migration situation since other young and vibrant people can go through the process according to the immigration law of the country to accept them as long as they are of good behaviour and good character. We are ready to work together in that direction."
On migration, Scholz said the debate was on and soon the grey areas would be sorted out. He stated, "The first is yes, there is a need in Germany for people that have talent and that want to work in our country in a way which is a regular path for migrants. And we are working intensely in this field and we want to get more progress and get things agreed in detail.
"The second is that part of this is also an agreement that those who have not the right to stay in my country can go back and should go back and this is part of something that is a win-win story for the two countries and in this sense, we had a debate and I think we will fix it very soon."
The German chancellor stressed his country's commitment to democracy and the rule of law and emphasised its commitment to security and economic development of Nigeria.
Scholz stated, "We are all committed to democracy and the rule of law. And it is important for us to make this a lifestyle for countries. It is good for a better future for our people. And so I'm very happy that we can work on this discussion.
"Even on the question on how we can continue to support you in doing the best and having this insecurity questions in your country as well. And we will go into the details later, but I can assure you that we will continue our support and our cooperation also in this field."
On areas of cooperation, Scholz stated, "One of the main aspects for cooperation will be developing the economy and using the economic opportunities of your country. As you already said, there are a lot of chances not just from gas and oil, which is traditionally linked to your country, but there's a lot of room for improvement and for better using the capacities of your country.
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"But also for going into investments for the future, which is about hydrogen and all the things that are important for an economy that is able to produce all the necessary goods for the people without harming the environment.
"But this is something where cooperation is also important and we will do so and it will be an important aspect of our work together."
The German leader regretted that minerals were just about extraction, as they end up in other country rather than for Nigeria's development.
According to him, "It is also important that we use the way of developing your economy in the fields of the minerals you have. I think that the investments into this structure must be easy, but also benefitting for your country.
"It is something that bothered me a lot in the past that sometimes it was just about extraction, which is not enough. There should be one bit more for making it feasible that some parts of the economic development can be used in the countries of origin.
"This is not the case today in our world, but if we change this a little bit, it will change a lot and working on this field is also important for us. We see that a lot of investments have to be taken looking at infrastructure and it's not just about roads and railways.
"It is also about electricity, the infrastructure using the grid making feasible that all the produced energy or the power that is already there could go to the people because they are making it and finding a way how we can develop economy in this field will be also important."
