Good day sir. Can you tell us about your journey to becoming the Nigeria high commissioner to Pakistan?

I was in the civil service and I retired at the pinnacle of my career. After retirement I was into business and also politics. In the year 2020 President Muhammadu Buhari considered me worthy of being appointed as ambassador and I was posted to Pakistan as the high commissioner in February 2021, and I have been there since then. The assignment has been very tasking but I thank Almighty Allah, with the help of God and the people I am working with God is seeing us through.

 

What would you say has been your biggest achievement as the Nigeria  high commissioner to Pakistan?

You know any kind of administration is continuum. In concrete terms I can not be elucidating my achievements mathematically but I thank God that what we met on ground we are trying to build on it with the help of all the former high commissioners here. Nigeria has been able to build a cordial diplomatic and economic relationship with Pakistan and we have been building on that. Historically, this embassy came into being in 1962, that is two years after our independence and we can describe the relationship between the two countries as very friendly; this is in terms of military cooperation. Trade between Nigeria and Pakistan is not very high but we are building on that day by day and it is getting more improved. I want to seize this opportunity to tell Nigerians at home that Pakistan is not a bad place to stay, because there is a very wrong narrative at home that the place is not safe and people were quite apprehensive when I was posted here. The country is quite stable and in terms of infrastructure they have done a lot. Living here is not bad at all.

 

How would you describe the rate of crime in Pakistan compared to Nigeria ?

There is no country that is 100 percent crime free. I think they are trying their best here to get the situation under control and nip it in the bud. Crime can only be reduced, it can’t be completely eliminated. I can categorically say that they have done an appreciable work in terms of curbing crimes here, a lot of things have gone into that; they are very good in terms of keeping record of movement of the people, to the extent that crimes committed by a person can be easily detected within a very short time. I can say that we have a lot to learn from them in that regard.

 

As a diplomat what is your reaction to the situation in Sudan?

I am not happy with the situation of things there( Sudan).  As a matter of fact I just heard it on the television that the last batch of Nigerians have been evacuated. That is a very good news for us but I would love that in the future that the embassy is allowed to play more active role.  You know immediately this happened the embassy was the first point of attack by the students and other social commentators and I was surprised when the Ambassador came out to say that he was not contacted. I think if anything should happen the embassy should be the centre of operation.

 

What can the Nigerian government learn from the Pakistani government?

Like I said earlier on, the relationship between the two countries is very cordial particularly in the political ,diplomatic, economy and military terms. The trade between the two countries is actually low for now but we are making effort to get improvement and I can tell you that our efforts are yielding good results already. However, there are a lot of barriers that militate against increased trade volume between the two countries.

First, we don’t have enough information about each other. I can even say wrong information about each other. Many Nigerians don’t know the capacity of Pakistan, in terms of industrial capacity, availability of mineral resources among others which we are not aware of and this is what I have been telling many people that Nigeria as a leading African country, we need to explore Asia. There should be cooperation between Nigeria and Asia. We need to explore Asia in terms of educational opportunities;  they have very robust education system here in Asia that we can learn a lot from, they can learn from us too, but the issue of worrisome informations about each other is not helping matter. Someone from Nigeria doesn’t want to come to Pakistan because he felt Pakistan is not very secured. I have discovered that this insecurity has been very over-exaggerated. When you get to Pakistan you will be surprised in terms of security arrangements. I’m not saying that there won’t  be occasional crimes here and there but no country can be free from such. And the same thing is prevalent among Pakistanis, when you mention Nigeria they will assume they are going to be kidnapped immediately they get to Nigeria. I think we can do a lot in letting each other know the actual situations in our  respective countries.  I remember that in those days we have a lot of Pakistanis in Nigeria as teachers, health practitioners among others. Around this 9/11 period the story started going the other way, so we are trying our best to see that these wrong informations that we have about each other are corrected so that we can move freely between the two countries, to do business and other things. Pakistan had started, in 2022 there was a trade mission in Nigeria where over 300 Pakistani companies came to Lagos and they saw for themselves that Nigeria is not insecure as they were made to believe. In a week time just like we have been having many visitations, a group will be coming from Nigeria to Pakistan, people will be able to see for themselves the true situation of things. Concerning the financial policies of the two countries, we need to do a lot in a way that it will aid the growth of the two countries. There are other barriers that exist that are not fostering trade activities between the two countries, they have to be looked into, we have a lot to offer each other. In Pakistan here, the pharmaceutical industry is very robust. The textile industry is an area we are trying to look into because textile industry in Nigeria is moribund, we are looking into how we can share the experience of Pakistan so that we can revive many of our moribund textile industries. Their IT industry is very standard as well, we are looking into how we can get Nigeria to tap into this. They also have good mineral resources. We also have a lot of things in our country too. For example the oil, the construction industry, we’ll make them understand that a lot of opportunities exist in Nigeria. We thank God that things are improving in this regard but we are not yet at the pace we would have wanted but at least we are making positive impact, but things are improving daily.

 

What is your embassy doing to fast track collaboration between the two countries in the areas you have listed?

Yes,  that is what we have been doing; that is why I said this effort has been paying off now. We are already seeing improvement. The High Commission here deals with the business communities in two folds; one ,we deal with the Chamber of Commerce, the chamber of commerce here is highly developed. There’s no community here that doesn’t have its own chamber of commerce. In fact, there  is a chamber of commerce here that has an international airport.

As at the last time that I visited them they have spent over 7 billion on the airport , and they are already flying within and outside the country. We are also dealing  with individual business owners who talk to themselves and we are already achieving success in that regard. We are even creating avenues for individual businesses to connect among themselves.

 

Can you tell us how rich Pakistan is?  The recent Russia/  Ukraine war has brought to light how rich Ukraine is, how rich is Pakistan?

In terms of foreign reserve I will not say that Pakistan is rich but what I’m seeing here in terms of infrastructure, investment in various areas, the number of factories , they have more than 55,000 vibrant industries here in Pakistan owned by private individuals. The construction industry is booming so much that I can say emphatically that their construction industry is bigger than our own. It depends on how individual is looking at the wealth of a nation. If you look at it from the area of private enterprises, I won’t say this country is poverty-stricken but if you look at it from the angle of foreign reserve, especially when you compare it to Nigeria,  you will assume they are poor. I once  told someone that this country( Pakistan)  has the  potential to be great because their industrial capacity is very high.

 

Very soon, there  will be change of leadership from President Muhammadu Buhari to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. What is your message to Nigerians and  advice  to the incoming government?

You know I am a politician and I am an APC member. I will urge Nigerians to continue to give our government maximum support so that we can continue to deliver on our manifestos so that Nigerians will continue to reap the dividends of democracy. I think Nigerians are very lucky to have someone like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as our president-elect.

He will take off from where President Muhammadu Buhari has stopped and you know that he has the capacity to do so and that is why Nigerians have elected him . He has done it before in Lagos. Lagos is the centre of excellence but I’m sure he will make Nigeria another centre of excellence in Africa and in the world.

 

Que: Would you say President Buhari has left Nigeria better than he met it ? Has he been able to impact positively on the needs of Nigerians?

 

Ans: Yes,  I agree entirely with the submission of the two ministers. I think all the ministers have been interviewed to present their scorecards and the scorecards have been very impressive; that is the summation of our government, you know Rome was not built in a day.

 

Que: What would you say has been your impact on your people back home in Kwara as a diplomat?

 

Ans: My impact is to offer useful suggestions to the government as well as individuals and companies as to what I have seen here. I shared my experience with them so that they can be able to do things better. We publicise the human and natural resources we have in Nigeria for patronage of those in the international community, starting from our home country of assignment here, these are the things we do.

 

Que: What  can Kwara State government benefits from Pakistan?

 

Ans: In the area of agriculture, Kwara is very endowed with very fertile land. Agriculture here is very developed, I can say that for years now, Pakistan has attained food sufficiency and their form of irrigation is very simple and cost-effective. These are some of the things we want to bring back home for emulation by our people.