Nigeria, Jamaica Recommit to Strengthening Bilateral Relations

Michael Olugbode

The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to strengthening bilateral relations with Jamaica in several mutually beneficial areas.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, disclosed this at the fourth session of the Nigeria-Jamaica Joint Commission in Abuja yesterday, stressing that education and cultural cooperation, economic and trade matters, technical cooperation, energy cooperation, migration, etc., will be its focus.

“It has been far too long for a very important part of the globe for us—the Caribbean—that we’ve gone too far apart. So, we really want to bring a big push to all the various levels—technical and people-to-people is very important,” stated the minister.

Onyeama noted that Nigeria and Jamaica “are brothers and sisters, and we do not see them as just another country with whom we trade and develop relations,” adding that “they are kith and kin and that’s how our policy towards Jamaica and other countries of the Caribbean is founded on that basis of kinship.”

According to him, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the High Commissioner of Jamaica in Nigeria decided that there should be direct people-to-people connectivity.

“So, a couple of years ago, we pushed very much for a first direct flight between Nigeria and Jamaica so that Nigerians can go to Jamaica and Jamaicans can come to Nigeria without having to go through Europe or the United States,” explained the Nigerian minister.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Jamaica, Kamina Johnson Smith, said the joint commission would allow the two countries to celebrate and deepen the longstanding formidable and dynamic friendship between Jamaica and Nigeria.

She emphasised that the flight to Jamaica from Nigeria in December 2020 was a small step in the right direction, adding that Jamaica looks forward to exploring prospects in oil and gas, mining, trading in agriculture and non-agricultural products and wider investment opportunities.

“This occasion, of course, marks the very first time that the meeting of this joint commission is taking place on the continent in Nigeria,” explained the Jamaican minister. “Since its establishment over 30 years ago, this joint commission has been a viable and important medium for us to exchange views on issues of mutual interest.”

She added, “We are pleased to have hosted previous sessions of the joint commission in 1999, 2002 and 2014, and we welcome the fact that we are able to meet here in your wonderful country during my first official visit to Nigeria.”

She expressed confidence that the two countries can foster more mutually beneficial frameworks for engagement and commerce and identify new areas for cooperation even as they seek to deepen existing ones.