President Muhammadu Buhari accompanied by his wife, six Ministers as well as two other top government officials would be attending the Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit in Istanbul.
The President and his entourage departed Abuja on Thursday for the third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, being hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Turkey.
On the President’s entourage are his wife, Aisha Buhari; the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Defence, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd); FCT, Mohammed Bello; Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; Agriculture, Mohammed Abubakar; Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo; the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd); and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.
According to the organisers, the theme of the Summit is “Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity,’’ and the agenda includes reviewing the cooperation between African countries and Turkey since the last summit in 2014.
The third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit is coming on the heels of President Erdogan’s recent State Visit to Nigeria during which several agreements in the fields of energy, defence industry, mining and hydrocarbons were signed to expand existing bilateral ties.
The Turkish leader had during the visit to Nigeria, affirmed his commitment to immediately expand the volume of trade between the two countries to $5 billion and the Nigerian delegation would seize the opportunity of the gathering in Istanbul to enhance cooperation with other partners for more trade and investment opportunities in the country.
It was expected that the summit would provide guidelines and direction for cooperation with African countries for the next five years.
The President is expected back in Abuja on Sunday, December 19.
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
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