By Ishola Adeleke, YeyeNews.com, November 23, 2021
The Chinese government has offered to organize a crash course on effective governance and administration for officials of the Nigerian government. According to a Chinese embassy official, President Xi Jingpin has approved the request for top Chinese experts to travel to Nigeria as resource people for the course. “President Xi is very worried about the economic retrogression that Nigeria is experiencing. Nigeria is a key ally of China and we cannot continue to watch it slide under the weight of misgovernance”, the source told YeyeNeews.com.
Another senior Chinese official confirmed that though the Nigerian government has accepted the offer of President Xi Jingpin, however, Nigerian president insists he will only attend the course if it is done in China. “The presence of President Buhari is vital as the buck stops on his table in every decision of the government. But the president said he will only attend if the training is done in China. He said he wants to show Nigerians that other countries hold him in high regard even if Nigerians don’t. Attending the course here will not prove that point. So President Xi has agreed to invite President Buhari to China were he will undergo the training before the experts will then travel to Nigeria to train other officials”, the source explained.
Nigeria has been sliding in every development index since Buhari came to power in 2015 but the government has continued to blame the plunge on different external factors. An aide of the president last week even blamed the high rate of inflation on Nigerians eating too much and advise them to lower their consumption.
But an expert in China-Africa relationship, Obi Lawson has commended the Chinese for their offer to train the government officials on effective governance and hoped the curriculum will involve taking responsibility for failures. “China Is a very serious nation. They won’t have developed to this stage if they had took the path of blaming Japan and the Komingtang in their early days. The early leaders took responsibility and braved all the odds to bring the nation to were it is today. I hope they will harp this vital lesson on President Buhari and his officials during the training”, the expert said.
Efforts by YeyeNews to contact the media aides of the president was not successful as at press time.
