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Obasanjo, Japanese emperor meet
•Urges understanding from Nigerians
President Olusegun
Obasanjo on Monday met with Emperor Akihito of Japan and Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi in a diplomatic move to foster more economic cooperation
between both countries.
The two meetings
were scheduled to enable Obasanjo press for more areas of collaboration between
Nigeria and Japan and also to get the ``Asian tiger'' to fully support Africa's
and Nigeria's reform efforts.
President Obasanjo,
who also met with Nigerians resident in Japan said that the country's economy
was still very far from being healthy.
He told them:
“I will be the first to admit that the country still has a long way to
go.'' He briefed them on the efforts by his government to reform the economy.
Japan, a member of
the G-8 countries has been fully supportive of Nigeria's effort to develop and
Obasanjo is anxious to sustain the very cordial relationship between the two
countries.
The president, who
is also the chairperson of the Africa Union (AU), is expected to lobby the
Japanese authorities to stand on the side of Africa and give full support to
its NEPAD initiative.
A source in the
president's entourage told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that Obasanjo would
use the opportunity of being in
Japan to brief the Japanese Prime Minister on his government's reform agenda,
as contained in National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS).
He has already met
with Mr Osamu Watanabe of the Japan External Trade Organisation, the Speaker of
the Japanese House of
Representatives and
Dr Sadako Ogata of the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation.
Obasanjo had also
met with the president and the chief executive of the Kobe steel company, one
of the largest steel firms in the world, Mr Tukuya Negami.
He held another
meeting with the executive vice-president of the World Bank, Yukiko Omura and
the president of the Japanese Bank for International cooperation.
The President is
being accompanied on the visit by
the Ministers of External Affairs, Ambassador Olu Adeniji, Trade, Idris Waziri
and Finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Obasanjo is due back in Abuja on Wednesday after a day's visit to India
during which he is scheduled to meet with the new Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Sigh and the
leader of the ruling Congress party, Ms Sonia Ghandi.
He however, told
Nigerians there that notwithstanding the difficulties, the citizens needed to
persevere for the future good of the children and the country at large.
The president
stressed that the path to full recovery was far and painful, but that already
there were signs to show that what his government was doing, had begun to yield
the desired results.
He said that the
country had since been fully re-integrated into the international community
having attained ``some impressive positions in the global arena. Our passports
no longer elicit that odious attitude at airports across the world,'' he said,
stressing however, that ``whatever
Nigerians do or say
outside the country would have tremendous impact on the image of the country.
He therefore, urged
all Nigerians resident abroad to, ``in every sense, see yourselves as
ambassadors of our country,'' and never do or say things that would portray
your country or leadership in bad light''.
He commended the
more than 4,000 Nigerians resident in Japan for engaging in legitimate business
there and urged them not
to tarnish the
image of their motherland.
Earlier during the
interaction, Nigeria's ambassador to Japan, Alhaji Adamu Aliyu also commended
the Nigerians resident in the country for their patriotism, noting that most of
them were engaged in legitimate activities in the country.
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