US to help Tinubu’s govt. drive technological revolution in Nigeria – Blinken
United States secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said that his country is determined to help the President Bola Tinubu-led government to achieve its drive for technological revolution in the country.
Blinken arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday as part of his tour of the West African coast.
In his speech, Blinken recalled that Tinubu had said at the UN General Assembly last year that “Africa is nothing less than the key to the world’s future.”
“Africa has shaped our past, it is shaping the present and it will shape our future,” Blinken affirmed.
“American companies are eager to partner with and invest in the Nigerian economy, particularly in the tech sector”.
“We want to work in partnership to help drive Nigeria’s technological revolution,” which according to him is creating jobs among other benefits.
“We have tech giants that have teamed up with Nigerian partners to help lead President Tinubu’s 1 million digital jobs initiative,” he added. He also said that the US appreciates Nigeria’s role during the Niger coup saga in 2023 and its efforts to foster democracy in Africa.
Nigeria’s foreign minister Yussuf Tuggar said that other issues discussed at the meeting include agriculture, pharmaceutical, and security itself in the African region.
He said President Tinubu “brought up the issue of Nigeria’s membership and participation in the G20 as well as the UN Security Council.”
“As we are all aware, Nigeria is the most populous nation in the African continent. It has the largest economy and therefore along with President Tinubu’s 4D foreign policy agenda of democracy, development, demography and diaspora, we feel it is necessary and deem it fit for Nigeria to be ably represented in these decision-making bodies.
“And we are aspiring for that, and to paraphrase the late Moshood Abiola, ‘You must not shave a man’s head in his absence,’ because by some accounts, as many as 60 percent of the resolutions passed by the UN Security Council are one way or the other related to Africa so Africa needs to be represented,” Tuggar stated.
