No Nigerian in Rwandan jails –Envoy

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines Thursday, October 6th, 2011

The Nigerian High Commissioner to Uganda with concurrent accreditation to the Republic of Rwanda, Fidel Ayogu has said there are currently no Nigerians serving jail terms in Rwanda and the few that live here are all law abiding. He attributed this to the renewed level of discipline and zero tolerance for corruption after the 1994 genocide. President Goodluck Jonathan is very much concerned about the behaviour of Nigerians in each country he visits.

Fielding questions from Nigerian journalists in Rwanda shortly before the arrival of President Goodluck Jonathan, Ayogu said aside the 38 Nigerians on the Teachnical Aid Corps (TAC) programme, there were relatively few Nigerians in Rwanda, when compared to other African countries and these are well behaved. He noted that Nigerians living in Rwanda were also distinguishing themselves in whatever field they specialised in, as they did in other countries where they reside. This is evident in the fact that the Chairman of the Nigerian community, Bulus Swange, is heading a department in one of the Rwandan institutions.

The high commissioner also said Nigeria was set to begin a formal bilateral relationship with Rwanda as what it had in the past was mostly informal, even though they had a cordial relationship right from independence. He said the only formal arrangement it had was that of the Technical Aid Corps (TAC). Ayogu, however, said there were many things Nigeria could benefit and learn from the country highly advanced in ICT, agriculture and was considered one of the fastest growing economy in Africa after the 1994 genocide.

Amongst other things he enumerated are the diversification it now has in agriculture to the extent that people were beginning to specialize in different parts of the field, their strong base in ICT field as well as its robust health sector. “Welcome to Rwanda, a country that witnessed genocide 15 years ago and has come out of it and what you can see here is a young country doing very well and is considered one of the most cleanest cities in Kigali per say in Rwanda, if not in East Africa. From their roads to their abattoirs, are as clean as anything and they don’t allow polythene bags, only paper bags because it can turn to manure and so many good things are going for them. They also have a very good leader, President Paul Kegama.

“On the two-day working visit to Rwanda by President Gooduck Jonathan, this is actually the first of such visits and in the process, the two countries have come together to pencil down a roadmap of cooperation between the two countries, which would be signed into cooperative agreements by the ministers tomorrow. We have equally enumerated areas of cooperation like in the field of space programme and policy technology, which is from the Nigerian side, ICT, which is from the Rwandan side, energy, trade and investment, Bilateral Air Space Agreement (BASA) and other areas. These mentioned areas are the areas we have discussed and more importantly, Rwanda has been benefiting from Technical Aid Council (TAC), introduced some years ago, they are one of the huge beneficiaries. As I am talking to you we have 38 nurses and medical personnel from Nigeria on TAC.”

On the trip, President Jonathan was being accompanied by Senator Andy Uba, Ibrahim El-Sudi, Amb. Olugbenga Ashiru, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Labaran Maku, Minister of Information and Dr. Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment. Others on the entourage include Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, Managing Director of Access Bank, Alhaji Aliko Dangote of Dangote Group, Mr. Jim Ovia, founder of Visafone and Mr. Tony Elumelu of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
President Jonathan is expected back to Abuja on Saturday.

-Sunwp_posts