PM, Nigerian President focus on security, transport and trade

SECURITY, AIR transport, trade and finance will top the agenda when Prime Minister Patrick Manning holds talks with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo at Whitehall on Tuesday. Obasanjo arrives in Trinidad and Tobago today for a four-day state visit, the first ever by a Nigerian head of state. TT first established diplomatic relations with Nigeria in 1962 and there were visits to the African nation by the late Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams in 1964 and Prime Minister Arthur NR Robinson in 1991.

On the latter visit, Robinson was conferred an honorary chieftaincy title (“the Ooni of Ife”) and both governments signed a cultural and technical cooperation agreement which allowed TT teachers to be recruited in Nigeria and Nigerian doctors to work in TT hospitals. Manning led a TT delegation to Nigeria to attend the Common-wealth Heads of Government summit in December, 2003. Currently, TT and Nigeria are considering cooperation in the areas of national security. Specifically, Government is considering the possibility of the TT Defence Force “co-opting military training courses offered by the Nigerian Defence Academy.”

Last Tuesday, Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley hinted at the possibility of national airline BWIA flying to the Nigerian capital of Lagos and other destinations in Africa. In 2003, a draft bilateral air services agreement was signed between TT and Nigeria and there are strong indications that this will feature prominently in talks between Manning and Obasanjo. Both governments have identified “increased benefits for trade and tourism and increased people to people contact” as some of the main benefits to be derived from “the establishment of a direct air link with the African continent.”