President Andrzej Duda of Poland on Tuesday made history as the first Polish President to visit Nigeria in the about 60 years old bilateral relations between Nigeria and the European country.
The visit which was aimed at deepening cooperation between the two country seemed to have been necessitated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine on global economy.
Duda, who commended the good and friendly relation that exists between Nigeria and Poland over the years, told a section of the Nigerian business community and government representatives present at a reception held in his honour stressed the need to take the cooperation between both countries to another level, said his country was capable of offering goods and services in the same range and quality as that being offered by china and Russia.
The Polish president, while identifying global food crisis as one of the major fall out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, disclosed that with his visit, Nigeria and Poland has signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of agriculture.
“We have vast experiences in the field of agriculture, biotechnology, ecology, climate protection, and production of eco-friendly food. We believe that the cooperation and the visit will contribute towards repairing those economic chains which were interrupted or even broken as a result of war and the covid-19 pandemic,” Duda said.
He explained that his country decided to help Ukraine in the ongoing war because it is against the imperial and colonial tendencies of Russia, which is currently responsible for the ongoing energy and food crisis.
“Right now a war is raging in our eastern borders, there is a war going on in Ukraine, which is as a result of Russian aggression against that country and that war has sparked off a lot of difficulties, a lot of shock, and a lot of crisis both in Europe and beyond and actually, all over the world. Among those crises let me just mention two; energy crisis and also the food crisis both of which poses a huge threat.
“Unfortunately, due to our history, we do know very well what Russian imperialism stands for, what Russian invasion stands for and that is why we are lending our whole and equivocal support to Ukraine”, he said.
“We are helping Ukrainians because we are absolutely sure that Ukraine and Ukrainians were invaded without any reason whatsoever and due to the imperial ambition and colonial ambition of Russia and at the same time we are very much aware of the fact that the war in Ukraine does not only affect our neighborhoods but this war is spilling over and into Europe and around the world also in Africa. And we are very much aware of the fact that the war in Ukraine poses a threat to Africa, it poses a potential food crisis,” the president added.
He further stressed that, “Nigeria is the only African country with which Poland has signed an agreement on Strategic Dialogue. And actually a very good part of this strategic dialogue is the memorandum of cooperation in the area of agriculture that we have just signed a couple of minutes ago.
“It is immensely important piece of document, especially in the light of the food security crisis that is faced right now. And not only by Nigeria, but also by the entire African continent.
“And the 10 most pivotal aspects that we raised in our conversation today both in our private tete-a-tete meeting with Mr. President, as well as during the plenary session was how to provide food security and energy security nowadays.
“Both of these topics, of course, stem from the situation that we are faced with today in Europe and to be more precise in our part of Europe. That is the aftermath of the Russian aggression and the war in Ukraine.”
Speaking about the energy security dimension, President Duda, said the talks held were essential from the perspective of supplying both LNG gas as well as oil to Poland and to the European Union.
“And speaking about those natural resources, Nigeria is indeed very wealthy. And I want to also add that the first supplies of the LNG gas to our LNG gas terminal from Nigeria had already happened, just like the import of crude oil performed by our oil company Latos.
“Those shipments did happen in recent years. And that means well for the future, because we do want to further develop this cooperation, we want to increase the supplies from Nigeria to Poland. And by this way, we also want to contribute to the development of economic relations between both our countries.”
He expressed hope that the political talks would yield very fruitful outcome and the meeting that he will have with representatives of business sectors, both from Poland and Nigeria.
On his part, President Muhammadu Buhari thanked the Polish government for welcoming Nigerian students whose studies were truncated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis; offering them opportunities for continued education.
His words: “I wish to seize this opportunity to commend the efforts of the government of Poland for the assistance provided to the large number of refugees that flee into your country from Ukraine, which included a significant number of Nigerians.
“I also wish to express our sincere gratitude on the kind and generous support extended during our government evacuation of our fleeing nationals. We also appreciate the opportunities given to some of our nationals to remain in Poland to continue with their studies.”
He noted that both countries have reached agreements to increase collaboration in agriculture, energy and defense.
Deji Elumoye and Alex Enumah in Abuja
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