President returns Tuesday, to celebrate sallah in Lagos

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, has said the United Kingdom (UK) is awaiting the appointment of ministers by President Bola Tinubu, before taking steps to strengthen collaboration.

Montgomery, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja at the weekend, said the UK government had identified six areas in which both countries could strengthen cooperation and explore “new areas to build upon for mutual benefits.”

Meanwhile, President Tinubu will return to Nigeria on Tuesday, a day before the Sallah celebrations. Barring any last minute change, the President will spend the Sallah holiday in Lagos State – his first official visit to the nation’s commercial hub since he became president on May 29.

This was confirmed by a Presidency source yesterday. According to the source, an advance team has already been dispatched ahead of the President’s arrival to receive him in Lagos on Tuesday.

The envoy said the UK is more interested in the bilateral ties with Nigeria as informed by Tinubu’s recent economic decisions.

“We have very long-standing ties being wired by history and we do have a very strong foundation on which to build, and I am very optimistic about Nigeria’s direction in the coming years.

“We wish to build on our economic relations in particular and the first decisions by the new administration show that it is going to take big decisions on the economy, which I think will give us the opportunity to grow our trade, investment, and economic relations.

“And I think there are a number of areas where the UK government can step up our diplomacy, our bilateral relations with Nigeria. But of course, we await the appointment of new ministers so that we can have the diplomatic dialogue necessary to lay the grounds for some of those.

“I will say that there are six areas we would like to explore. The first is long-standing development cooperation.

“And I think what the UK always needs to do when a new administration comes into place is, we need to understand the priorities of that administration and how we can adapt and work in mutual partnership and with our development programmes.

“The second is the economic area. We already have a good economic dialogue but we would like to take the next step and develop a form of a more enhanced trade and partnership – something I am quite keen to discuss with the new minister of trade and industry.

“The third area is security and defence, which we would like to evolve and take forward. We already have a good relationship on home affairs, with your interior ministry and other agencies, and that is an area where we would like to continue our collaborations.

“Finally, we would like to have a more systematic dialogue on foreign policy. Nigeria has played a very valuable role in regional and continental issues and the UK would like to have a more systematic foreign policy dialogue with the government of Nigeria once the ministers and advisers are in place,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

On Friday, Tinubu concluded his official trip to Paris, during which he participated in the summit for ‘A New Global Financing Pact’ hosted by French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The President used the opportunity of the summit to hold high-profile sideline meetings with fellow heads of state and government, global business leaders, and chief executives of leading multilateral and development finance institutions from around the world. He was initially scheduled to be back in Abuja on Saturday, but proceeded to London, United Kingdom (UK), for a short private visit.

The presidential media aide, Dele Alake, had in a statement announced that Tinubu would be back in the country in time for the Eid-el-Kabir festival slated for Wednesday. (The Guardian, excluding headline)

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