Dambazau’s Diplomatic Mission to China and the Journey So Far -By Edwin Uhara

Since his assumption of duty in Beijing, Ambassador Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau has left no one in doubt about his core mission of renewing the hope of the country through diplomatic engagements in the People’s Republic of China.

Not only that he rolled up his sleeves and hit the ground running, but in his characteristics zeal of adding value to whatever he does, he initiated moves intended to familiarize himself with all the staff as well as align them with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

So far so good, he has engaged with many investors, scholars and captains of industry with the aim of exploring possible investment opportunities in both countries.

In one of such visits with his team, this is what the envoy said: “Today we visited a factory – (STELATO) showroom and the headquarters of BAIC INTERNATIONAL; one of China’s biggest manufacturers of electric vehicles. ”

“The company was established in 1958 in partnership with Mercedes Benz and it has over 10 factories in China and 29 factories globally.”

“The company has spread selling centres to over 140 countries across the globe.”

He continued, “Although the company has a showroom in Abuja but we discussed the possibility of establishing a factory in Nigeria.”

“We also discussed the possibility of establishing a battery processing factory to leverage on the huge deposits of lithium in Nigeria.”

“With this, there will be skills acquisition and employment opportunities for our youth as well as transfer of technology and Nigeria will be a regional hub for the manufacturing of electric vehicles in West Africa.”

Though Dambazau is a foreign policy wonk by training but as a way of upgrading his knowledge to the latest practice in the diplomatic circle, he recently attended a seminar on 70 Years of China-Africa and China-Arab Diplomatic Relations which centered on how to jointly build a community with shared future.”

“China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs was the Special Guest of Honour while the Permanent Representative of the African Union to China and the Head of Representative Office of the League of Arab States in China were all in attendance.”

The seminar discussed unity and mutual support in the global south economic cooperation and shared developments as well as issues concerning climate change, debt reduction and culture.”

It also focused on commitment to One China Policy; people-to-people exchanges; Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), belt and road initiative as well as zero-tariff policy.

The idea is to build sustainable China-Africa-Arab partnerships for peaceful and prosperous future.

In another investment drive to a multinational giant, here is what the Ambassador said: “Today we visited Huawei EBC Exhibition Centre for smart governance, digital power, etc.”

“Huawei is the largest telecommunications vendor in Nigeria. The company supplies infrastructure for major carriers like MTN Nigeria and provides enterprise solutions, cloud services and digital power systems.”

“It was an opportunity to see the state of the art digital facilities. Many electric vehicle models are linked to Huawei digital technology.”

This is a company that only started in 1988 and was introduced to Nigeria in 1999.

He added that the success story of the company was as a result of discipline, determination and selflessness.

He urged them to concentrate their activities on providing opportunities for Nigeria’s young population as part of sharing the profits they have been making from doing business in Nigeria on the ground of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

However, it is not all about attracting foreign investments into the country but also about creating opportunities so that Nigerian entrepreneurs can have access to the Chinese market.

One of such Nigerians who visited the embassy recently was Chief Lucky Igbinedion, former governor of Edo State.

Here is what the envoy said after his visit; “Chief Lucky Igbinedion and his business partners visited me today.

It was an interesting conversation on a proposal for partnership between China Science Academy and the Nigerian Science Academy on research collaborations.

They want to embark on the medicinal values of BITTER KOLA and ALLIGATOR PEPPER which I understand are good in curing certain diseases related to kidney and diabetes.

They desire the Embassy to support the project and make a formal connection between the two academies.

We promised to support the project and also emphasized that if the research is successful, part of the agreement is that the pharmaceutical giant must build it’s production plant in Nigeria where the raw materials are in abundance.”

Adding that, “I also advised that NAFDAC and PSN should be involved from early stage of the research since the end product will be pharmaceutical drugs for the cure of ailments.

Earlier, before starting his diplomatic activities, the envoy had met with relevant authorities in Beijing where several diplomatic introductions were made.

Here is what the Ambassador said after one of such engagements, “My second invitation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing; this time with the Director -General, African Department following my first meeting with the Minister.

Our discussions focused on a 3-point agenda – ‘Diplomatic Cooperation, Trade Policy and Military Cooperation.

We reaffirmed the ‘One-China’ principle and indepth exchange on strategic issues.

Nigeria being China’s second largest trading partner in Africa need to take advantage of the Zero-Tariff Policy, especially on agricultural commodities.

Adding that China wants to increase imports from Nigeria in order to reduce the trade imbalance.

The need to boost military, intelligence, and security cooperation was made clear, especially with the current level of insecurity in Nigeria.

We emphasized the need for domestic production of military and security equipments in Nigeria as a gradual process and we have DICON as a Special Vehicle Plant.”

In this regard, the envoy said there would be an inter-governmental committee coming up next month, July, when other important issues will be tabled and discussed accordingly.

From all indications, it is now clear that Ambassador Dambazau has re-enacted the excellence he is well known for in far away China; not only on government-to-government diplomatic levels, but also on government-to-people engagements.

Comrade Edwin Uhara is a United Nations-trained Negotiator and Public Policy Analyst