Nigerian government has revealed that mechanisms have been put in place to strengthen the country’s bilateral relations with Jamaica in several mutually beneficial areas.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema disclosed this at the fourth session of the Nigeria-Jamaica Joint Commission in Abuja on Wednesday, while stressing that the Joint Commission is very important as issues bordering on education and cultural cooperation, economic and trade matters, technical cooperation, energy cooperation, migration and others will be discussed.
The Minister noted that Nigeria is determined to ensure that these joint commissions will not be just an annual or biannual ritual, insisting that they are going to try to put in place mechanisms of monitoring, to ensure that real and practical effects are achieved from the two countries’ agreement.
He said: “It has been far too long for a very important part of the globe for us—the Caribbean—that we’ve gone too far apart. So, we really want to bring a big push to all the various levels—technical and people-to-people is very important.
“We also need to look at the cultural level where we can drink more Jamaican rum here and export palm wine to them and we export afrobeat and they will give us reggae and calypso, as well as show us how to organize carnivals through technology transfer to have better carnivals. There is so much we can be doing as a people to cement this relationship”.
Onyeama reiterated that there is a lot that binds Nigeria and Jamaica together, as they are all sovereign countries and as such, still have to put in place mechanisms to strengthen their relationships.
He said: “We are both from the same source and so we are essentially the same people. We are brothers and sisters and we do not see them as just another country with whom we trade and develop relations. For us, they are kith and kin and that’s how our policy towards Jamaica and other countries of the Caribbean is founded on that basis of kinship”.
He said: “The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the High Commissioner of Jamaica in Nigeria decided that there should be direct people-to-people connectivity and so a couple of years ago, we pushed very much for a first direct flight between Nigeria and Jamaica so that Nigerians can go to Jamaica and Jamaicans can come to Nigeria without having to go through Europe or the united States.
“Although it is one short flight, the impact will really be a giant leap for the relations between Nigeria and Jamaica as well as the rest of the Caribbean. We are actually hoping that Jamaica will be the possible hub for Nigerian flights to the Caribbean.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Jamaica, Kamina Johnson Smith, said the joint commission allows the two countries to celebrate and deepen the long-standing formidable and dynamic friendship between Jamaica and Nigeria.
She emphasized that the flight to Jamaica from Nigeria in December 2020 is a small step in the right direction, adding that Jamaica looks forward to exploring prospects in oil and gas, mining, trading in agriculture and non-agricultural products and wider investment opportunities and as such, welcomes the opportunity to explore the potentials to strengthen and deepen the bilateral relations of the two countries in these areas.
According to her: “This occasion of course marks the very first time that the meeting of this joint commission is taking place on the continent in Nigeria. Since its establishment over 30 years ago, this joint commission has been a viable and important medium for us to exchange views on issues of mutual interest.
“We are pleased to have hosted previous sessions of the joint commission in 1999, 2002 and 2014 and we welcome the fact that we are able to meet here in your wonderful country during my first official visit to Nigeria.
“I and my team are committed to ensuring that the mechanisms we put in place will allow for continuous follow-up and implementation to ensure that there are deeds to match the words which will be exchanged during the course of today”
She expressed confidence that the two countries can foster more mutually beneficial frameworks for engagement and commerce and that they will identify new areas for cooperation even as they seek to deepen existing ones.
“It is worthy of note that Jamaica and Nigeria have maintained active levels of cooperation over the years, notably in health, education, craft development and other cultural fields, as well as tourism and energy”.
