Nigeria won't beg for G8 aid

2010-06-24 22:31

Mississisauga - Nigeria's will seek recognition and embrace as a mature partner at the forum of the Group of Eight (G8) most industrialised nations, and will not beg for aid, Nigerian officials said.

"It is not in terms of coming here with a cap in hand begging for aid for Nigeria," the country's envoy in Canada Iyorwuese Hagher told journalists shortly before the arrival of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan late on Wednesday.

"Nigeria is here to seek for a handshake and embrace in recognition of our country as a mature partner who has had problems, challenges, corruption, ethnicity and lack of infrastructure but we can no longer be defined by those problems," Hagher said.

Jonathan, who assumed office in May following the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua, will be participating at the forum for the first time. He was invited along with several other African leaders.

Past Nigerian leaders have been invited to attend the forum, but observers and Nigerian government officials say this invitation indicates tacit acceptance by world leaders of Jonathan's nearly two-month tenure as president

Jonathan said in a statement he will seize the opportunity to "share with the G8 leaders his vision and plans for the consolidation of democracy and the revitalisation of the Nigerian economy, as well as his views on the country’s role in Africa and world affairs".

Jonathan will on Thursday address selected representatives of companies from G20 nations, address the world media and later hold a working dinner with his counterparts from Angola and South Africa.

On Friday, he is scheduled to participate in the G8 outreach working session before returning to Abudja later that day.

Nigeria, a regional power in west Africa and the eighth largest exporter of oil in the world, is both the most populous country and the largest market in Africa.

- SAPA