Envoys of Côte d’Ivoire, Poland, Britain and the U.S. diplomatic missions have commended Nigeria’s strategic approach to the recent nationwide protests.
The envoys disclosed this in separate remarks in Abuja when foreign affairs minister Yussuf Tuggar briefed Heads of Diplomatic Missions on the protests.
Amb. Kalilou Traore, Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire, commended Tuggar for the initiative to provide the diplomats an updated on the protests, saying it would help to tackle spread of fake news.
According to him, the explanation provided by Tuggar will help them to finalise their respective reports to be sent to the various country capitals.
Traore said, “The situation in Nigeria is, of course, important for Nigerian people, but also for all of us.
“We are very concerned about the situation in Nigeria and we wish you to have stronger and stable country.
“We congratulate Nigeria for the way it has managed this situation; the maintenance of order, speech by President Bola Tinubu calling for dialogue and announcement of all the measures already taken.
“We assure the government of Nigeria of our supports to all those efforts, we want a Nigeria that is stable and stronger.
“We are ready to join our efforts with the government and Nigerian people, to improve their well-being, ensure sustainable development in all areas, including discussion, economic cooperation that will help Nigeria.”
Stanislaw Gulinski, Charge d’ Affairs of Poland Embassy in Nigeria, commended the ministry for the information provided about the protest.
The envoy fielded questions to authenticate issues that surrounded the arrest of Seven Polish citizens during the protests in Kano.
Gulinski said, “I congratulate you on your speech and detailed information about the protests, and reaction of the government.
“Seven of our students were detained in Kano in the process of the protests and now transferred to Abuja. All information I know is informal, till now.
“The embassy was not informed officially in any way about their plight. I will like to get information about their situation.”
Richard Montgomery, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, commended the security agency’s strategic approach to arrest the situation and underscored the need for sustainable peace-building amidst the protests.
“I commend the security and policing agencies for avoiding lethal force. This is big and complex situation.
“We have noted very clearly the commitment to enabling peaceful process and commitment to policing proportionately, and I just want to put on record our appreciation of some of the handling.
“We have a lot of empathy for people facing some significant hardship and the level of inflation. I endorse my colleagues call for dialogue and peace-building to continue in Nigeria.
“We fully support the big and important economic reforms that are ongoing in Nigeria at the moment, which we see as essential for the future prosperity of the country,” Montgomery said.
The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills, thanked Tuggar for the knowledge shared about the protests, saying, “I thank you for bringing us here together for this useful and informative briefing.
“I also want to use this platform to express my embassy’s condolences for the loss of lives and sufferings Nigeria have seen over the past days.
“We understand the difficulty that the reforms President Tinubu’s administration has undertaken.
“We know that these reforms are necessary and we have supported, and worked with the administration as they have carried us along.”
Amb. Salaheddine Ibrahim, High Commissioner of Cameroon and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, expressed gratitude to the minister for the initiative to have put interactive session together.
According to him, it should be organised often to provide diplomats right information about what happens in Nigeria.
Ibrahim said, “We want to thank the minister for organising this interactive session with the diplomatic corps, to give us real information about what happened and the vision of Nigeria in this matter.
“To draw the right information, we have to draw from the right source, to be assured that this will be done, so that our governments are not misled by false information.
“The vision of Nigeria will be dully conveyed to our governments; the interactive session has allowed all of us to have more precise information to some other subjects about the protests.”
