SAN FRANCISCO, June 12, (THEWILL) – The President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, Friday hailed the bilateral ties between Nigeria and the United Kingdom assuring that the present administration would continue to push for stronger collaboration.
Saraki spoke when he received the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock, inside his office at the National Assembly, Abuja.
He commended his guest for reinvigorating the mutual understanding between both countries stressing that Nigeria would always look forward to Britain in areas of infrastructural development and social security, adding, “I am very delighted to receive Your Excellency in my office barely 48 hours of my resumption of office. This shows the level of commitment the British government has towards the course of Nigeria.
“We look forward to a very good working relationship in order to move our dear country forward. Nigerians deserve the best of governance.”
Earlier, Dr. Pocock congratulated Saraki on the success of his election adding that the United Kingdom will always work closely with the Nigerian government in ensuring good governance at all levels.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Senator Abdullahi Ibrahim (Sokoto-East), Senator Abdulrahman Abubakar (Kogi-East), Senator Misau Isah Hamma (Bauchi-Central), Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi-West) and Senator Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara-South) were present during the visit.
Speaking to journalists after his visit, Pocock said: “We discussed capacity building for the senate both in general terms and also in areas of particular interest and difficulty, complex pieces of legislation
We also discussed ways through which the British government can work with Nigerian government and the Senate in terms of ideas on how to manage and diversify the economy of Nigeria.
“We discussed how we can assist with some ideas about the management of the Nigerian economy, areas in which the UK can make a contribution and we briefly discussed some of the security inputs that we might make to help with the stabilization of the security situation in the North East”, he said.
He said the basic structure of Nigeria’s economy needed to be changed a bit, regretting that even though Nigeria has huge potentials for revenue generation for the government, the country still depended solely on oil as the only source of revenue.
He added that how the National Assembly can make laws that will assist to diversify the economy from mono to multi commodity, and how to better the management of the resources through oversight and legislations is the area of interest to the British government.
“We are not going to get drawn into discussions of party affairs. What we want to do is to talk to the President of the Nigerian Senate about how we can work with him individually, with the institution, to strengthen the bilateral relationship,” he said.
Nigeria Seeks Stronger Ties With Britain As Envoy Visits Saraki
SAN FRANCISCO, June 12, (THEWILL) – The President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, Friday hailed the bilateral ties between Nigeria and the United Kingdom assuring that the present administration would continue to push for stronger collaboration. Saraki spoke when he received the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock, inside his office […]
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